Vestoj The Journal of Sartorial Matters

Issue Five ON SLOWNESS Vestoj

The Journal of Sartorial Matters

Issue Five On Slowness TABLE OF CONTENTS

9 Editor’s Letter 67 A Time for Dressing Conversations on 225 Flash Fiction: On the Symbolic slowness In Praise of Shadows 13 refashioning time Importance of Splendour By Anja Aronowsky Cronberg By Junichiro Tanizaki On The Cultural and Social By Professor Barbara Vinken Mediations of Temporal 131 Dries van noten 189 fashioning rebirth Infrastuctures 73 the dignity of On Avoiding Traps, Trickery On Mourning and Memory By Dr Michelle Bastian beauty and fitness and Other Shenanigans in a Papua New Guinea Village On May Morris and By Dr John Barker 21 the contemplative life the Arts and Crafts Movement 137 hussein chalayan On Slowing Down Production By Karlijn Slegers On Being Painted into 199 The Endless Stream by Elongating Wear a Corner and Getting Stuck On How to Recognise the By Father Michael Casey OCSO 81 Boro Mottainai Devils of Our Own Creation As told to Laura Gardner On the Beauty of Things 143 margaret howell Paintings by Ying Yan Quek Impermanent, Imperfect On Becoming Less 29 spinning for Freedom and Incomplete Self-Conscious, Awkward 209 the art of jeans On How Viewing Khadi as By Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada and Gauche On Mending and Making Do Theatre Unravels the Narrative By Anja Aronowsky Cronberg of Mahatma Gandhi 97 Flash Fiction: 149 christophe lemaire With photographs by Justine By Dr Susan S. Bean What an Old On Aiming for the Ideal Kurland Woman Will Wear While Rooting for Reality 41 sLow time By Lydia Davis 225 machine oil is god’s time 155 nigel cabourn smells sweet On Patience in the 103 dressing in On Travelling the World By Maria Fusco Age of Hypermodernity shadows and light and Telling Stories By Dr Donald B. Kraybill On the Birth of Fashion 229 Flash Fiction: Photography the Middle Drawer 49 Betwixt Photographs by 161 Idle Days By Hortense Calisher and between Edward Steichen On Warm Gravel, Languid On Liminal Time in the Afternoons and Pointing 246 Notes Context of the Fashion Show 117 Fashion freeze frame Overhead for the Passing Day By Nathalie Khan On Human Artefacts Photographs by Mark 250 contributors and Stopping the Clock Borthwick 59 dWelling time By Nilgin Yusuf 254 the vestoj manifesto On Examining Experience 179 Slow and steady Economy and the Third 123 Flash Fiction: wins the race Space in Fashion dialogue between On Making a Case for Fashion By Karinna Nobbs fashion and death Education in Cultural Capitalism With photographs by Polly Brown By Giacomo Leopardi By Professor Frances Corner

Vestoj On Slowness 5 Masthead Colophon vestoj issue five is Editorial Advisory Board

Editor-in-Chief and Publisher Professor Frances Corner This is the fifth issue of Vestoj. It was published Vestoj HQ is still located on the beautiful rue Anja Aronowsky Cronberg Head of College at London College in autumn 2014. Beranger, in the heart of Le Marais, in a house of Fashion, London with heavy doors that goes under the number 7. It was was printed and bound by Artes Gráficas The postcode is still 75003, and the city is still Designed by Professor Caroline Evans Palermo in Madrid, Spain. The paper stock Paris. Now you can probably guess that this is Erik Hartin & Moa Pårup Reader in Fashion History and Theory at Central employed is Cyclus Offset, a recycled paper, Paris, France, not Paris, Texas, Paris, Ontario Saint Martins School of Art and Design, London with the weight of 90 grams per square meter. or even Paris, Kiribati. On another note, did The dust jacket conceiling the coptic bind of you know that Kansas City is also called Paris Art Editor Professor Christopher Breward the journal is printed on Magno Satin with of the Plains? And that Saskatoon is also known Lisa Rovner Principal of Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh the weight of 150 grams per square meter. as Paris of the Prairies?

Olivier Saillard a note on the type: ’When in doubt, use Caslon’ If you want to reach us to say something nice or Sub Editor Curator at Musée de la Mode et du Costume, is an age-old typographer’s adage. William Caslon to let us know that we could have done so much Karlijn Slegers Palais Galliera, Paris was an eighteenth century British type designer, better, the address is [email protected]. If you want who started a type foundry producing wildly popular more Vestoj and can’t be arsed to wait around for Dr Valerie Steele alphabets cast in lead, to use with the letterpress another year (yes, that’s how long it takes us!), Web Editor Director and Chief Curator, Museum at the printing techniques available at the time. This issue you can stay updated on our Facebook account Laura Gardner Fashion Institute of Technology, New York of Vestoj employs Caslon, in a variety of cuts (to be or at www.vestoj.com. precise: Ed Benguiat’s ITC Caslon 224; Bitstream’s Professor Peter McNeil Open Face Caslon; Adobe Caslon; Caslon Old Face; Interns Professor, Centre for Fashion Studies at and Founder’s Caslon, used for this text). None Marta Franceschini Stockholm University, Stockholm and University is more true to the original design than the other of Technology, Sydney – the problem with trying to authentically reproduce Natasha Palazzo letterforms of three centuries ago quickly becomes Professor Elizabeth Wilson evident when considering that even Caslon’s own Contact: first [email protected] Visiting Professor of Cultural Studies at London designs were anything but original. William Caslon Vestoj is published under the patronage of London College of Fashion, London was heavily influenced by Dutch letter designs that College of Fashion, so for this issue we want to were already antiquated at the time. Adding to this again extend our humble gratitude to Frances Sarah Mower is the fact that Caslon’s foundry produced a range Corner and London College of Fashion – without Ambassador for Emerging Talent at of letterforms, but not one with the name ’Caslon’. them you would not be holding this issue in your The British Fashion Council, London When designers today refer to the font of that name, hands right now. it could be any one of a wide variety of different Hamish Bowles revivals, varying in size, weight, contrast and pretty We would also like to thank Monkey Myron, International Editor-at-Large at much everything else, but all with a very long, shared Mary Myron, Bess Nielsen, Mathias Deon, American Vogue, New York heritage harking back to the first Roman printed Sophie Demay, Susanne Tide Frater, Patrick letterforms of the Renaissance. Scallon, Taque Hirakawa, Laurence Oliver, Gon Aya, Studio Blanco, Alexandra Senes, Our ISSN number is 2000-4036. You can buy Vestoj Mimosa Spencer, Scarlett Rouge Newton, from all the best (obviously!) newsstands and Emily McGuire François Quintin stores around the world, and also directly from us. and the Fondation Galeries Lafayette. Look at the website for details, www.vestoj.com. ‘What an Old Woman Will Wear’ most recently The views expressed in Vestoj sometimes coincide published in The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis. with the editors’, but then again other times they Copyright © 2009 by Lydia Davis. Reprinted by don’t. Basically, if you want to complain, feel free permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC to do so. We love a good ol’ rant, but we’ll probably, and Penguin Books. annoyingly, sit on the fence. As we have no advertising we won’t give you the If you want to reproduce anything from the usual blurb about who to contact to bribe us into magazine, don’t forget to ask permission first. featuring your products. Give unselfishly instead!

Vestoj On Slowness 7 our own time as simultaneously the most progressive and the most relentlessly accelerated. The modernist project, however, firmly rooted the relationship between progress and speed, and in so doing also forever altered our notion of time. A universal temporal framework, with time zones, seasonal changes and accurate clocks, was constructed with the help of new technology, and the previous more subjective understanding of time had to make way for expedience and the hustle of modern life. With a more synchronised understanding of time, editor’s letter the future also became easier to grasp and, by extension, to control. For a In Slowness Milan Kundera, the Czech writer, remarks that ‘there is a secret bond between slowness and memory, future that can be measured in terms between speed and forgetting’. In of the knowable present, is a malle­ the fashion system this bond seems able future, a future that can be to take on a particularly poignant shaped according to our will. meaning, with the degree of velocity With the advent of modernity, often appearing directly proportional past, present and future came to to the time it takes to forget a style be understood as a linear evolution, that just moments ago it seemed and the ‘temporal architecture’ that we could not live without. philosopher Krzysztof Pomian refers The speed of change is a grow- to in L’Ordre du Temps turned into ing complaint about fashion, both an implicit and integral part of the amongst those whose livelihoods experience of being modern. Sharing depend on it, and amongst those the same chronology is tantamount who observe these ceaseless shifts to sharing a similar basic understanding from afar. Grumbles about a ubiqui­ of the world, but we must not forget tous acceleration are nothing new that time is a social construct. The however; in fact, the grievance we sociologist Norbert Elias and the appear to harbour against velocity philosopher Michel Foucault have is as old as modernity itself. Back both argued that the modern ‘discipli­ then the machines that increasingly nary society’ attains its power by the replaced the human hand aroused establishment and inter­nalisation fear and trepidation; today our of set structures of time, and chrono­ attitudes reflect much the same politics are consequently a potent ambivalence towards the revolutions tool for domination. In other words, of time. It seems we always regard those who arrive first, win.

9 Anja Aronowsky Cronberg Editor’s Letter

In terms of fashion, the depre­ But no matter how much we try speed will forever return you to your ciation of the past in favour of the and convince ourselves that eternal starting point, slowness by contrast present is what keeps the wheels style is possible, in fashion the past allows you to advance at a pace that of the system turning. Fashion aims is forever haunting the present. Fashion encourages contemplation and to always be ‘of the moment’, but depends on perpetual movement observation. To be slow is far from to do so it has to disown its own past. – onwards, forwards – and in so doing, remaining static; instead, slowness The seasonal changes in fashion that it must renounce its own history. In is a temporal notion that prioritises we today are so familiar with, are an the vernacular of fashion, the most the journey over the destination. old fabrication. As early as the seven­ stinging insult that can be levelled at In this world of instant gratification teenth century, Paris fashion was anyone is belonging to a past no we sometimes forget that speed is organised according to the seasons longer relevant; derisively aiming not a virtue in itself, nor is it to be in order to further French trade and this judgment at a rival is a way of confused with success or efficiency economy. A more regimented system establishing your own superiority. or happiness or accomplishment. came into being in the early twentieth To be passé signals the demise of So, allow yourself to be idle, to century when haute couture shows in a fashion professional. dwell a moment, to delay and iterate. Paris became organised into biannual The politics of time are a sign­ Use your hands to make something fashion weeks, signalling for creators ificant device for separation; it creates a machine could make much faster. as well as consumers of fashion that a purposeful schism between those Look for the beauty in the the old had to make way for the new. who dominate and those who are impermanent, the imperfect and the Fashion scholar Aurélie Van de dominated, between us and the Other. incomplete. Take your time. Because, Peer has written about ‘the temporal As the sociologist Hartmut Rosa has as the writer Rebecca Solnit once so anchorage of fashion’ and points out pointed out, the ones who lead are, succinctly put it, ‘Time always wins; the relationship between the termi­ as a general rule, those who under­ our victories are only delays; but nology of time and the degree of stand speed. In fashion, as in everyday delays are sweet, and a delay can last fashionability of a garment. The life, temporal strategies like keeping a whole lifetime’. 2 aesthetic judgments we make on ‘out- someone waiting, changing the rhythm of-date’ fashion tend to be strong, and or jumping the gun are often cause for terms like ‘passé’ and ‘old-fashioned’ strife, as anyone who has ever waited are often used as potent tools for for a show to begin, had their idea ridicule and scorn, symbolising copied and produced faster by a as they do, a past that is no longer competitor or been compelled to relevant. Similarly, idioms like endure an interminable presentation ‘modern’ and ‘of the moment’ by an important patron can attest. are employed to evoke the present, The philosopher Paul Virilio talks the moment that in fashion terms of a ‘rushing standstill’, which seems is the most desirable. We know of to describe contemporary culture well. course that, as Elizabeth Wilson The cult of speed can sometimes feel writes in Adorned in Dreams, overwhelming, but in the cracks of ‘the “now” of fashion is nostalgia the system, a slower, more reflective in the making’ – perhaps this is why pace is gaining traction. Whereas a disingenuous term like ‘timeless’ Virilio’s phrase appears aimed at has such cachet in fashion circles. a heedless velocity that despite its

Vestoj On Slowness 11 Photographer Jan Søndergaard, courtesy Croy Nielsen Gallery. Re- fashioning Time

On the Cultural and Social Mediations of Temporal Infrastuctures

By Dr Michelle Bastian

Jacob Dahl Jürgensen, Classics in Steel, 2011.

13 Refashioning Time

Thus, in contrast to more trad­ itional clocks, which suggest that time is a single steady flow from the past into the future, these sartorial clocks tell us a quite different type of time. Importantly, despite assumptions that fashion is primarily about speed and When it comes to thinking about time, clocks arguably have the game all sewn up. What else comes to mind change, the examples above suggest so quickly and easily when someone that fashion can also tell the compli­ asks ‘what is (the) time?’ Type ‘time’ cated, context-specific and deeply into the search box on Google Images, political nature of time.1 The recent for example, and the results that are ambition of slowness in fashion returned include row upon row of further complicates this picture. stock photos of clocks. Flickr offers The proposed antimonies of fast and a little more variety and creativity: slow fashion have developed as part elderly couples signifying the tragic of addressing fashion’s implication in passing of time, the round fluffy seed unsustainable capitalist practices that heads of a dandelion, but even still, contribute to massive waste, intensive clocks dominate. energy use and the exploitation of Yet despite what our clocks might human labour. These debates illustrate want us to believe, they have never even further the tension between our been the only objects in our lives two types of clocks, by showing how that tell us the time. Indeed, the tight time might be involved in enabling inter­twining of fashion and time in or disabling shifts towards more the popular imagination suggests that sustainable ways of life. clothes might themselves operate as Even so, there are many ways clocks of particular kinds. What we in which the logics embedded in inter- wear signals whether we are of the ­national, standardised systems of times, ahead of them or behind. The clock-time obscure the more compli­ refusal to change the style of one’s cated picture highlighted above. Rather clothes can signal a kind of stasis, than time being culturally and socially a refusal to engage with the passing mediated, time becomes universal, of time. The wedding dress of Miss with the assumption that it should be Havisham, the tarnished heroine of possible in principle for everyone to Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, experience the ‘same’ time. Conversely tells us just as much, if not more, than time also becomes individual rather her household clocks stopped at twenty than social, with each person expected minutes to nine. The enthusiastic to take responsi­bility for keeping remaking of one’s style, on the other themselves ‘in time’. Finally the politics hand, tells the time of transformation, and ethics of time is hidden behind a of distancing oneself from the past framework where time is simply under­- in the hope of new futures. stood as a quantitative measurement.

15 Michelle Bastian

One advantage of reckoning with to unpack how sustainable businesses the influence of clock-based under­ approach the issue of time. An initial standings of time is the framework analysis suggests that their struggles it can provide for understanding some with time are less to do with pace and of the controversial ways ‘slow’ has more to do with supporting themselves, been taken up within the fashion their customers, suppliers and business industry. The flatness of clock time, partners in adopting the more complex and particularly its tendency to suppress understanding of the times required qualitative understandings of time, to do socially and environmentally would appear to feed into the deploy­ responsible work. ments of slow that have been criticised These engagements with time in literature on the topic. As design are not about developing grand new consultant and activist Kate Fletcher theories, but appeared most often as has argued, the temptation to under­ idiosyncratic micro-strategies. One stand ‘slow’ as being solely about pace example that stands out was during or speed enables the movement to be a cheese-making workshop, where hijacked and used as ‘a marketing the class found itself disconcerted angle or alternative distribution channel by the idea that making ricotta would in the current model, a tweaked version involve attending to a pot on low of today’s practices’.2 This kind of heat for at least an hour before curds approach, which might utilise season- started to form. The workshop leader, less collections, more durable pieces having noticed this fear of ‘empty time’ previously, subtly re-storied this time as an opportunity to enjoy a glass and the use of traditional techniques, but without challenging the economic logic of mainstream fashion, conforms to the idea that time is only about timing.3 In co-opting slow in this way, however, have designers failed to heed the lessons that can be learned from the way fashion tells time within social life? The importance of understanding time as multiple, as imbued with meaning and as having political effects has been a recurring theme for many scholars, particularly in relation to sustainability. In a recent research project, the kind of time(s) that might support sustainable economies is explored.4 This particular enquiry includes a range of case studies from the UK and Australia which seek

Vestoj On Slowness Michelle Bastian Refashioning Time of wine, listen to music and relax. Indeed she suggests that too often Another example was where a member there is a focus on the individual of a workers co-operative, which slowing down, without a concomitant provided websites built with open emphasis on challenging the structural source software, talked about needing inequalities that make this impossible to challenge customers’ assumptions for many workers, such as farm­ around immediate solutions, empha­ workers and night shift workers, sising instead the more unpredictable at the heart of the food industry. times of community collaboration. Interestingly the slow fashion move­ This emphasis on the need to ment has done much to support an re-story time as part of a shift towards understanding of the way one’s time sustainability would appear to fit is dependent upon others, show­ing well with arguments proposing that how the Western consumer’s experience designing more durable or less of novelty and speed can only occur resource-intensive objects needs due to the oppressive regimes of time to be accompanied by ‘social infra­ control endured by factory workers. structure, of appropriate consumer Perhaps then, in the effort behaviour and cultural acceptance’.5 to re-time fashion (and re-fashion That is, sustainable fashion cannot time) there is much to be gained be achieved by design alone but needs by recognising and drawing out the to acknow­ledge the ‘deeply social multiple stories about time that are nature of fashion’.6 Part of this embedded within the histories, cultures sociality of fashion is also formed and materialities of fashion. However, by the stories it tells about time. we should not forget to continue to Thus, if time is not separate from ask, as Sarah Sharma puts it, ‘what the world, but arises from worlds new forms of vulnerability are and supports some ways of life over necessitated by the production others, then part of the work of a of temporal novelties or resistances more sustainable approach to fashion to speed. Whose time and labour are Photographer Jan Søndergaard, courtesy Croy Nielsen Gallery. is creating the necessary temporal re-orchestrated by changes in pace, 8 infrastructures that might support it. whether sped up or slowed down?’ 2 Unlocking the hold of the clock over our temporal imaginaries is a formidable task however. Responding to one aspect can mean there are others left intact. Media and cultural studies scholar Sarah Sharma’s analysis of the slow food movement, for example, suggests that while there may be a shift from quantity to quality, the individualising force of the clock Jacob Dahl Jürgensen, Elements of Time, 2011. has not been adequately dealt with.7

Vestoj On Slowness 19 THE CON- oyih Hlo-etc Collection / CORBIS. Hulton-Deutsch Copyright TEMPLATIVE LIFE

On Slowing Down Production By Elongating Wear

By Father Michael Casey OCSO As told to Laura Gardner

Cistercian monk reading in Leicestershire, England, c.1930. Photographer unknown.

21 The Contemplative Life

public eye the monks prefer to venture ‘incognito’, adapting to modern dress so as to limit un­ wanted attention. Father Casey speaks of the power a garment has in a context far removed from mainstream fashion, but also of the act of slowing down the production Father Michael Casey OCSO (Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance) is a priest, tailor, author and of clothing by elongating wear. member of the Tarrawarra Abbey, the only Cistercian monastery in the The Tarrawarra Abbey is a Cistercian Southern hemisphere. Observing the monastery in the tradition of the ancient rule of Saint Benedict, the rule of Saint Benedict from the Cistercians are an ancient order sixth century, when it was the major that broke away from the Catholic monastic rule throughout the Western Church in medieval times with a church. The Cistercian element desire to lead a more simple and derives from a reform in the eleventh contemplative life. Faith, work and century, which broke away from the self-sufficiency are the main­stays of Catholic rule with the desire to get the Cistercian way of life, something back to a simple, contemplative life radically in contrast to the fashion and the search for God. Throughout system. The Tarrawarra Abbey in the centuries there have been many central Victoria, Australia, was reforms, but the idea to live a simpler established in 1954 by a group of life by supporting and sustaining Irish monks, and is now home to oneself with one’s own work, remains. fourteen monks. The simple monk In effect we’re a Catholic religious garments, tailored by Casey with order based on a life of balance between fabric from a local mill, last the work and the daily praises of God, wearer anything upward of fifteen what’s called the Divine Office, or years. The ‘cowl’ in particular, is Liturgy of the Hours. Monks go to worn ceremon­iously seven times a church seven times a day beginning day for prayer. The garment is at four o’clock in the morning, and symbolic of the daily transition into ending at eight at night, so the day the introspective space of worship. is punctuated by prayer. The excess fabric and draped sleeves Dress has a significant role in of the cloak are specifically designed monastic life and the ordinary daily to slow down the wearer, allowing dress consists of a tunic, over which for contemplation and introspection sits something called a ‘scapula’, during the Liturgy of the Hours in named after the scapula bone in the church. This cere­monious the shoulders. The main monastic dress is observed routinely within garment, and a crucial aspect to the monastery, but outside in the the Liturgy is the ‘cowl’. Originally

23 Father Michael Casey’s robe. Photographer David Roberts. Laura Gardner The Contemplative Life the cowl was worn at times a monk Our dress hasn’t really changed old European monasteries for practical hat shop, Leonardo’s, in Brisbane. wasn’t working, but we’ve become since the medieval era. It’s difficult reasons of warmth. Often in drawings Before coming to the monastery he more practical than the medieval to know an exact date when it was around the seventeenth century, the made hats for famous women like people and now only wear it for designed but the earliest description cowl has a detachable hood since this Princess Margaret and Shirley MacLaine, times of prayer. of monastic dress is in the writings is the part that would get dirty, and who would fly over to meet him. We The design of the cowl is a large of Saint Hildegard of Bingen, a mystic can be washed separately. used to joke that the only reason he cloak, with long sleeves and a hooded of the twelfth century in Germany. The white cowl also has it’s own entered the monastery was because neck hole. It’s a contemplative garment She was interested in clothing and history; for instance if you ever cut women stopped wearing hats! and meant to be impractical – you its theological significance and gives your finger it leaves a stain which I don’t really have a view of main­ can’t run in it for instance. It slows very detailed directions about how is there forever. So it’s a record of stream fashion. I get the impression you down and you can’t do much in various monastic garments are your life in a sense. We expect at that there’s a kind of exhibitionist the way of work as a result of the to be constructed. least fifteen years from each cowl, tendency that something isn’t deemed long sleeves. Because you can’t move The garments have been fairly so it collects a history over time. ‘good’ unless it’s different from every­ quickly, it calls forth a sort of gravitas standard since their creation: the We don’t wear our monastic gar­ thing else. In my distant observation, by imposing a sense of gravity on cowl is simply three metres of cloth ments outside of the monastery, this originality seems to be the prime the wearer. There is a special way with a hole in the middle. We don’t is for efficiency really; if you’re doing value, despite whether it’s comfortable, of walking within the church, which actually have a pattern for this, we the shopping, you don’t want to make or usable. I compare it to when I pass isn’t always observed nowadays, just measure the length needed and a spectacle of yourself. If you’re on a house that looks as though its been called walking in ceremony, where do a freehand sweep of the shape. a plane you don’t want to attract too designed by an ‘architect’, it’s the same you let the sleeves down. The long For the fabric, we use a product much attention. Anonymity is what we for bold outfits that look as though sleeves merge with the body, which called Prestalene, developed in 1960 are looking for outside the monastery. they’ve been designed by a ‘fashion becomes unified. There’s also the for uniforms by an Australian company My tailoring predecessor would designer’. It’s self-consciously dramatic added symbolism of the cowl that called Prestige. It’s sixty-five percent say that he could always tell to whom or glamorous. when you lay it flat, you get a cross. polyester and thirty-five percent a garment belonged by how it hung on For instance if you were listening When you make your commit­ viscose rayon, and very tough. the hook. People customise their cowls to a pianist, you might say ‘anybody ment as a monk, after five or six years My best cowl and my newest by wearing them. We had a psycho­ could do that’, it sounds so natural of probation, you are officially clothed (I have three in total), is seventeen logist working with the community and effortless. I’d say the same about in this garment. The experience of years old. My oldest is from 1965 and in the 1960s who said he always a well-designed house: it looks as being enveloped by the cowl signifies I’m still wearing it every day. There recognised individuals by their shoes, though it belongs in that place, it isn’t being brought into monastic life. You is the slowness in that it impedes fast watches or glasses, that’s where shouting at you or pointing to itself. become part of the fabric. The actual movement, but also attesting to the they make the difference, where they That would be my idea of good design, experience for the wearer is to be stability of the cowl. I suppose that is express themselves. For us, we can that it looks easy, and only when you enveloped, and it induces a thought­ another sort of slowness, since you’re be differentiated by some details, but know something about it, you see the ful, sober mood. It’s not frivolous. wearing the same garment for fifty- we don’t choose glasses just because work. I’m attracted to things that are At the same time, nothing could odd years and it doesn’t change they’re fashionable, but because they simple and elegant, and that have be simpler in terms of the shape colour, or season, or style. are cheaper, or more comfortable. longevity and history. 2 of the garment. But it’s not a totally Benedictans, another monastic In the church space, however, we impractical garment, so long as you order, have a very similar way of strive for uniformity. don’t want to do a lot of things. If you dress­ing, but they wear the belt inside The monk that taught me to tailor, want to sit, it’s perfectly comfortable, the scapula, and their garments are all who has since died, Brother Leonardo but it gives the kind of sobriety that’s black. Their cowl is gathered around Xavier, had been a milliner in Paris inductive to the contemplative life. the neck, a detail that started in the for Christian Dior before opening a

Vestoj On Slowness 27 spinning for freedom

On How Viewing Khadi as Theatre Unravels the Narrative of Mahatma Gandhi

Mahatma Gandhi spinning khadi, India, c.1920s. Photographer unknown. By Dr Susan S. Bean

29 Spinning for Freedom

act 1 acting lessons in the theatre of the colonial regime

As opposed to other narrative text­- iles, whose stories are contained in or depicted on their symbolically prologue intricate, embellished surfaces, khadi is completely blank, unadorned by The story of khadi (‘homespun’) and its creator Mohandas Gandhi is well known in India and around the world. any kind of pattern. In addition, it In his political campaign for Indian represents the very opposite of what self-determination (swaraj), Gandhi has traditionally been most valued famously promoted the practices about Indian cloth – fine texture, of making thread through spinning elegant design and exceptional colour. by hand and wearing simple khadi As coarse, white, plain-weave cotton, garments – not only as key symbols Gandhi’s beloved textile stands in sharp of national identity, but also as a contrast with these opulent fabrics. central statement of resistance to Also known as khaddar, khadi cloth the colonial regime. As writer, producer was modelled after what all Indian and director, Gandhi instigated a textiles had once been: hand-woven national drama centred on the roles of handspun yarn. of spinner and khadi-wearer. Made Gandhi intended the unornam­ from handspun yarn, his khadi would ented, non-dyed white khadi cotton emerge from India’s handlooms not to remain modest in style, while just to costume the nation but to aspiring to great symbolic value as change the essential character of a protagonist in the theatre of nation its people, altering colonial subjects building. In his unique formulation, into ‘citizens’. Seen as theatre, khadi would be the costume for the narrative of khadi reveals how nationalists, potentially all the people Gandhi transformed this cloth into of India. Gandhi was fully convinced much more than a mere textile, and of the ideological potential of khadi how khadi exerted transformative and to actually convert its wearers into long lasting effects in India’s national nationalists, suppressing other diverse movement. The drama of khadi illu­ and divisive, historically embedded minates the potency and tenacity identities – those rooted in caste, inherent in this humble homespun religion and region – and fostering cloth; already having proved itself a social as well as spiritual ideal of within the framework of the freedom unity. Wearing khadi and spinning struggle, the story of khadi still yarn could alter the sense of self resonates more than sixty years of the Indian people through culti­ after India gained Independence.1 vating fellow-feeling and bolstering

31 Susan S. Bean Spinning for Freedom self-determination. In its association encounters formally scripted into with such transformational properties, colonial society and the pageantry of khadi is deeply rooted in India’s ancient imperial rituals. He had already begun textile culture, which uses cloth to experimenting with his garments evoke right conduct, enact community on his travels through India in 1901, and transmit social and ritual standing.2 when he was clad in kurta and dhoti. Despite the great significance In South Africa he donned labourer’s that khadi was to have on the image clothes adapted from prison garb, of Gandhi as an icon of national pride and he also tried going barefoot and as well as on the trajectory of India wearing a dhoti or lungi at political as a nation, it was not in his home meetings. But when he sailed to country that Gandhi first discovered England in 1914, he dressed as the potential of cloth as both symbol an Englishman. and mode of political resistance. His sartorial experiences led him Rather it was during his stay in Britain to conclude that within the British as a young law student that the young Empire, in terms of dress one could Mohandas Gandhi initially experi­ not simultaneously be a dignified enced first-hand how garments can Indian and an English gentleman. immediately and insidiously alter The costumes assigned by the and project one’s sense of self. In the protocols of the regime ensured the harsher, more repressive and openly debasement of Indians, aggravated racist social environment of South the dialectic of the master-servant Africa, where Gandhi subsequently relationship, and objectified human spent time providing legal assistance beings into the category of colonial

to the Indian community, he discov­ subjects deprived of fundamental Potpourri. Copyright Kamat’s ered the extent to which the colonial agency. Realising the centrality of authorities directed and controlled cloth to the mechanisms of colonial civil society – and how much power domination and to the formation of clothing had in the strategies used national identity, Gandhi initiated his to reinforce social hierarchy. He soon own explorations into the potential realised that on the colonial stage of of khadi as a mode of political resist­ South Africa, wearing Indian headgear ance, and as a means of invigorating with an English suit could not resolve the rural economy – and of thus setting the dilemma created by imperial India on a path to self-sufficiency authority which made it impossible that was culturally suitable, avoiding Advertisement from khadi mill, c.1940s. Artist unknown. to be both fully Indian and a full Western materialism and honouring citizen of the British Empire. local communities. Gandhi responded to this With his experiments behind him, dilemma by experimenting with his Gandhi returned to India in 1915 in own attire, developing his knowledge the garb of a Kathiawari peasant. He of clothing and its power to delineate had now fully begun to use the theatre both personal identity and the social of cloth to advance his concept of

Vestoj On Slowness 33 Susan S. Bean Spinning for Freedom

a true Indian nationalism. Gandhi and could be learned by anyone. He discovered that in this context, what considered it a way to revitalise the he wore could have an impact that rural economy by providing a supp­ would definitely influence, and to lementary source of income to all. some extent actually direct, the course True swadeshi (fully indigenous) cloth, of political events. However, he quickly he asserted, must be fully handmade. found the Kathiawari outfit inadequate After instituting the making of for his purposes – it was too closely khadi at the Satyagraha Ashram in tied to region, class and religion. In Gujarat in 1917–18 and after urging order to promote the unity of all Indians all Indians to devote half-an-hour throughout the sub-continent, rich each day to spinning yarn, Gandhi and poor, of all religious persu­asions became convinced that spinning was and denominations, Gandhi needed to in fact much more than an essential evolve a simple and practical costume ingredient of true swadeshi cloth. that transcended cultural distinctions. He recognised the theatrical power of Through continued personal and spinning to simultaneously enact and

Copyright Garry Saint, Esquire. political practice Gandhi successfully convey the narrative of the freedom initiated a new drama of cloth and struggle.4 Although traditionally a clothing – one not scripted and task performed by women, anyone controlled by the colonial regime, but and everyone could spin. The act one which would emerge from within of spinning could be staged in every the nationalist movement. On this home in India, and in public before stage Gandhi and khadi would be assembled multitudes. The mani­ the central protagonists.3 pulation of the wheel or spindle was a dramatic, almost magical act, radiating its own aura as the spinner act 2 directed his or her complete Khadi hundi issued as local currency and used as exchange for khadi cloth, c.1955. spinning as theatre awareness to the action, concentrating on the movement of the wheel, Gandhi promulgated the theatre of feeding the fibre, twisting, pulling khadi not only by advocating its use and winding the yarn. The audience, as attire: he also directed that all whether family members or a mass supporters of swaraj should spin. assembly, watched as the spinner sat Hand spinning was once, of course, with total focus on a task apparently the only way to produce yarn for meditative in character, transforming weaving, but in Gandhi’s time it was bits of fluff into purposive strands. a rarity in India. By 1908 Gandhi had Observers saw that spinning, like become aware of the importance of the movement for political freedom, spinning, despite having only a vague required discipline and sacrifice grasp of the actual mechanisms of the – and it had to be deeply internalised process. Hand spinning, he reasoned, as personal practice if it was to required the simplest of equipment be accomplished with skill.

Vestoj On Slowness 35 Susan S. Bean

Spinning had the power to trans­ as it projected and simultaneously form both the nation and its citizenry. shaped the character of the wearer. The spinner appeared as the simulta­ The act of bestowing or removing neous embodiment of swadeshi and headgear had the power to elevate swaraj. By staging spinning in homes, or degrade; to alter the wearer’s social villages and public arenas, members position and even influence the wearer’s of the audience would have a partici­ moral substance. After many years of patory role on the national stage, experimenting, Gandhi came up with rather than being mere spectators a new type of headgear for men. The to the drama of the freedom struggle. simple cap, soon popularly named for Dramatic scenes of Gandhi and him, would foreground and augment other nationalist leaders sitting at the theatrical potential of khadi. their charkhas were witnessed by Gandhi’s simple, small, folded multitudes at public meetings, and cap made of white khadi was enthusiastic followers recreated such inexpensive, easy to keep and wear, scenes at home. Committed spinners and without strong communal or not only made thread, they made sectarian associations. At Gandhi’s urging the cap was swiftly adopted by the Indian National Congress, and over a place for themselves on the national stage – acting out self-sufficiency, and in the process actually developing self-reliance. Singly and as commu­ nities, they introduced the script of nation building to towns, villages and homes across the country.

act 3 the triumph of khadi: scripting the role of citizen

Gandhi’s experiments with clothing and its potential for staging, dramatising and effecting the freedom movement culminated around the same time as his efforts to transform India into a nation of spinners enacting and creating swaraj. In 1919, Gandhi hit upon a solution. From the very beginning of his politicisation in South Africa, he had become acutely sensitive to the power of headgear,

Vestoj On Slowness Susan S. Bean Spinning for Freedom the next two decades it became epilogue twenty-first century, khadi has and remain relevant for more than an active signifier of nation­alism. after gandhi also converged with the ecological sixty years after Independence, Merely by donning the cap the wearer movement to be featured among and there is all likelihood that it already assumed the role of freedom India’s independence in 1947 and products that are organic, ‘green’ will continue to do so for decades fighter. Worn en masse at public Gandhi’s assassination in 1948 robbed and sustainable. Recently too, textile into the future. 2 meetings, demonstrations and the theatre of khadi of its creator, and fashion designers who appreciate marches, Gandhi-capped proto- producer and director, as well as its the sturdiness of the coarser counts citizens of a free India united to fundamental reason for being. After and the fine, diaphanous qualities oppose the colonial administration. Independence, khadi was institutio­ of higher counts have adopted khadi These mass ‘performances’ were nalised. It was embedded in the fabric for high fashion collections. This filmed for newsreels and photographed of the nation through the Khadi and elevation of khadi into the domain for newspapers, and people across the Village Industries Commission and of elite consumption seems ironic sub-continent and across the world successive five-year plans, which given its original role – that of promo­ recognised them as critical partici­ maintained spinning as a source of ting the democratic values and virtues patory scenes in a drama of resistance. income in rural areas. The powerful of equality and material simplicity. In 1921, however, Gandhi gave association with Gandhi, patriotism, Yet the appreciation of khadi in up the simple cap and reduced his morality and the freedom movement its specific contemporary manifest­ apparel to khadi loincloth and has helped keep khadi alive ever ations, perennially empowered by chaddar (cotton shawl). This final since. Nevertheless, despite innovations its enshrinement in the Gandhi-led costume change was a multifaceted and other efforts to achieve economic freedom movement, does indeed help action, demonstrating his empathy viability, khadi has continuously to maintain its production and its with and commitment to the impo­ required government subsidy to presence as a meaningful industry. verished masses. In making this survive. The khadi produced today Khadi is sustained by intersecting, decision he also emphasised the would be unrecognisable to its spiri­ if not always complementary, forces scarcity and consequent expense tual father – the mixtures of natural – ongoing government programmes of khadi.5 Through his reduced attire, and synthetic fibres, production of to support its production as supple­ he exhorted the nation to spin more yarn on semi-mechanised charkhas, mental employment in rural areas; yarn and produce more khadi for all sometimes with twelve or more spindles, a source of low-cost clothing; khadi’s to wear. The image of a khadi-clad and designs in a plethora of colours appeal as a handmade textile in an Gandhi, the spiritually evolved ‘great and patterns make Gandhi’s khadi age of mechanised production; and soul’ (mahatma) at his spinning seem like a distant memory. khadi’s potential as an ecologically wheel was a stunning and absolute In the decades since Indepen­ viable product. In all these contexts repudiation of the persona of the dence, motivations for wearing khadi the indelible connection to Gandhi proper English gentleman to which have shifted as well. Some wear khadi and the freedom movement surrounds he had once aspired. Through this to mark themselves as keepers of khadi like an aura, effortlessly main­ unequivocal saintly persona, he Gandhian ideology and supporters tain­ing the historical and psychological proclaimed pride in Indian civilisation, of India’s hand-manufacturers. After significance of this homespun cloth the equality of all Indians, and the Independence, the white khadi kurta for millions of Indians. The theatre dignity of all – even the poorest. and cap gradually became a uniform of khadi that Gandhi single-handedly for politicians wishing to signal conceived and initiated from the their patriotic service – sometimes deepest roots of personal conviction sincerely, sometimes not. In the has been powerful enough to resonate

Vestoj On Slowness 39 Photographer William Albert Allard/National Geographic Creative. Originally published in 1965. slow time is god’s time

On Patience in the Age of Hypermodernity

By Dr Donald B. Kraybill

41 Slow Time Is God’s Time

of the Amish, was a tailor, which may account for some of the group’s interest in dress. Prior to arriving in North America, they rejected the use of buttons as ostentatious symbols of pride and instead used wire hooks and eyes to fasten clothing. Their critics taunted them saying, ‘Those with hooks and eyes, the Lord will save, those with buttons and pockets, the devil will snatch’.3 Today North America’s nearly 300 000 Amish live in thirty-one states. Their church is organised into 2120 congregations, each consisting of twenty to thirty-five families living ‘Patience’ is the gigantic message scrawled on every Amish buggy plodding on modern highways.1 ‘The horse is our in proximity yet interspersed among pacer’, as one Amish man puts it, ‘We non-Amish neighbours. The life of can’t speed up like you can in a car’.2 each congregation is guided by its The slow-paced hymns in Amish ordnung (order). This unwritten church services linger for twenty set of regulations governs the use minutes. The most traditional Amish of technology, dress styles, furniture, do not set their clocks ahead an hour and other practices. There are some in the summer season as other forty different Amish affiliations, or Americans do. These traditionalists tribes, with unique styles of dress, favour slow time, God’s time, estab- buggies, and technology that distin- lished by the rising and setting of the guish them from one another. Even sun. In the midst of a hyper-speed within the same tribe, the bishop of culture that wants more and more, each congregation has some latitude faster and faster, from instant down- to interpret and enforce dress regu- loads, immediate tweets, express lations. Although Amish people may mail, and extreme sports to rushed appear as a homogeneous cluster everything, the Amish stubbornly from a distance, their dress styles resist the velocity of hypermodernity. vary between and within each tribe. The Amish emerged in 1693 in One researcher found dozens of the Bern area of Switzerland and variations in women’s clothing the Alsace region of France. They across fifteen Amish communities.4 migrated to the United States in This essay, however, focuses on several waves in the eighteenth and the dress practices of the large nineteenth centuries, and the last (30 000-member) Amish community European congregation closed in in Lancaster County, ninety miles 1936. Jacob Amman, the founder west of Philadelphia.

43 Donald B. Kraybill Slow Time Is God’s Time

The Amish seek to follow Amish, self-adornment calls attention and women wear clothing made of be. It is rare to see a boy or man with- the teachings of Jesus in the New to personal taste and preference. solid, non-patterned fabrics.10 out a hat when he is outside a building. Testament.5 Two pivotal religious Clothing that shows off one’s individu- The wardrobe of an Amish Typical colours for men’s shirts include values – separation from the world ality produces a proud, haughty person, woman includes a dress, an apron, light pink, sky blue, baby blue, lime and self-denial – regulate Amish and pride is considered an abomination a cape, a prayer kapp, and, in winter, green (very common), royal blue, tan, wardrobes. Separation from the world in the eyes of God. The fashions of the a heavy shawl and a protective bonnet. blue/green, olive green, emerald means that their religious community outside world, in Amish eyes, are vain For everyday work, she wears a scarf green, burnt sienna (for teenagers), seeks to maintain a cultural difference expressions of conceit and frivolity. instead of a kapp and does not wear deep purple (for young boys), light from the outside society even though In hypermodernity, dress a cape. The degree of plainness is purple, brown and other colours they mingle with non-Amish neigh- articulates individuality and personal signaled by whether a woman wears similar to those worn by women. bours and buy and sell products in taste.9 In Amish life, clothing expresses a bib apron (a garment that drapes Although undergarments are the larger economy. Church elders exactly the opposite meaning. When over the dress and is tied but not typically purchased, most Amish believe that clothing should reflect members wear Amish garb, they relin- pinned in the back) or the more clothing is homemade. A few Amish biblical values of self-denial, simplicity, quish their right to self-expression traditional waist-style pinned apron seamstresses make suits and over- modesty, humility, and separation and signal their commitment to com- for everyday activities. The typical coats for men and organdy prayer from the world.6 They cite Bible munal authority. Amish dress styles woman may own seven to ten dresses kapps for women, which require verses about dress practices such as have several important functions: including two or three specifically special skill. Mothers typically sew the women’s prayer covering (kapp),7 to show conformity to the collective styled for church services. Typical most of the clothing for their family, but many of their customs, rooted in order, to restrain individual expres- colours for the non-church dresses of including their own dresses. They tradition, are symbolic expressions sion, to promote equality, and to married or older women are dark purchase fabrics from Amish-owned of separation from the world. When erect symbolic boundaries around blue, light blue, hunter green, winter- shops and spend much time perusing asked why they wear a certain article the community. Dress provides a green, olive green, light green, mahogany the aisles filled with dark hues, of clothing, a typical Amish reply is, distinctive uniform that declares and chestnut brown, tan, deep mauve, holding the fabrics up to the light, ‘It’s just the way our people dress’. without doubt who belongs and who and dark plum. inspecting the slightly different Nonetheless, dress habits have a does not. In short, dress signals group Amish men grow beards but textures and fabric compositions. religious legitimation because the loyalty. It shows whether one is shave their upper lips because In the past, women wore one hundred local congregation reaffirms them obedient or disobedient, humble or moustaches have traditionally been percent cotton fabrics primarily, twice a year in members’ meetings. proud, modest or haughty, loyal associated with European military which required ironing. Recently, For instance, an Amish catechism or rebellious. officers. They wear shirts without more women wear cotton/polyester manual devotes nine pages and forty- Amish women and men have a pockets, suspenders, and black blends, which wrinkle less. Mothers three questions and answers to dress wardrobe for each of three occasions: zipperless trousers with a ‘broad fall’ occasionally purchase some of their – second only to the topic of heaven.8 work, dress up (public occasions), flap across the front that is fastened sons’ and husbands’ work shirts Individualism is the sharpest and church. The most traditional, by a button. A suit coat is worn for from thrift shops. wedge between Amish culture and plainest, and most conforming garb dress-up and for church. Zippers, The Amish value thrift and modern life. Amish life accents is worn to church. Men who might, belts, and ties are prohibited. These frugality. They frequently repair, communal obligations and loyalty, for example, wear jackets with items as well as pockets on shirts are recycle, and reuse clothing. As one not individual freedom and choice. buttons for dress-up occasions will considered ornamental and frivolous. woman commented when asked, ‘If Amish culture values deference to wear suits with hooks and eyes for The size and style of men’s broadbrim the clothes are patched and if the others and uffgevva – giving up to church services. Likewise, women hats (straw for summer and felt for patch needs to be patched, then the group. All cosmetics and wear darker colours and fasten their winter) are regulated by the church, I know it needs to be replaced’.11 jewellery, including wedding rings dresses with straight pins to attend and commonly the wider the brim, Another woman said wistfully, ‘I feel and wristwatches, are taboo. For the church. Regardless of venue, men the plainer the man is understood to a bit badly for my youngest son [of

Vestoj On Slowness 45 Donald B. Kraybill Slow Time Is God’s Time four boys] because he has never had the young people have not yet pledged summer dresses have changed and, against the stresses of the modern anything new, but he hasn’t minded, to obey the ordnung. occasionally, teenage girls add world, but also a deft manner of either’.12 Amish children wear their In the Amish mind, fashion is decorative buttons to those sleeves. finding personal satisfaction in clothes hard, given all their chores a bad word that is associated with the To circumvent the prohibition of acquiescence to the group. Perhaps and their frequently long walks to vanity of popular culture. An Amish pockets on shirts, some men wear then, the Amish know what the rest school. Families share children’s manual says, ‘We know that worldly a leather pouch on their suspenders of us are still struggling to accept: clothing among one another. fashions have their origin in the most to hold pens, and more progressive slowness no doubt brings its own

Occasionally, mothers purchase wicked cities on earth, that their men are likely to wear short-sleeved kind of joy. 2 contemporary-looking jackets foundation is not modesty and shirts. Occasionally, they may wear (without hoods) for their sons godliness but lust and pride’.13 a window-pane patterned shirt or a and then painstakingly remove Amish dress practices are slow cherry red shirt, both of which exceed the zippers. to change because they are viewed traditional patterns of decorum. Other From the age of sixteen to as religious precepts. But change widely accepted changes in the last the early twenties, Amish youth they do, and not only for utilitarian decade involve more and brighter experience rumspringa, a time for reasons. Amish fashion – change colour choices, athletic shoes worn socialising and courtship with their for the sake of change – exists, but in work settings and Velcro, which, in peers. During this period, they are it is subtle, slow, and miniscule. For a nod of respect to the taboo on but- not accountable to church regulations instance, for many years baby boys tons, is frequently used to fasten coats because they are not yet baptised and typically wore dresses until they were and other clothing items instead of official members of the church. Many toilet trained, but that practice is hooks and eyes and straight pins. How- continue to dress in fairly traditional changing, as some parents worry that ever, none of these glimmers of fashion ways, while others rebel more openly a dress on a baby boy may lead to would ever appear in a Sunday wor- and wear some non-Amish clothing gender confusion when he grows up. ship service, where conformity to the to youth parties. Teenage boys, for A more progressive mother, with dress code is paramount. example, may wear blue jeans and a wink to tradition, may take her Unlike moderns who welcome fashionable shirts and cut their hair baby boy to church in a dress one change and applaud the endless according to contemporary styles, time and thereafter dress him in arrival of new gadgets and gizmos, all of which is prohibited for adult trousers and shirt. Individual signs of the Amish prize patience and church members. During rum- rebellion or boundary testing include, slowness, and are averse to change – springa, some young women wear for women, wearing prayer kapps that especially change simply for the sake dresses in non-traditional colours are smaller and thus expose more of it. Such deference to durable tra- and complement their dress choices of the ear, kapps with untied strings, ditions might make Amish life appear by painting their toenails with brightly kapps with pronounced heart-shaped drab to the outsider. Yet Amish life coloured polish and wearing sandals designs on the back, dresses in has many benefits for those who or flip-flops or by wearing coloured brighter colours, decorative pins have chosen to abide by its rules. socks, which they call ‘anklets’, on jacket lapels, and small frills In a culture where abundant choice with other non-traditional footwear. and ruffles on sleeves. In addition, frequently spikes anxiety and where Many youths try to respect their women’s dresses are now longer than the emphasis placed on individuality families’ preferences even though they were in the past. The waistbands, is often at odds with our desire to fit their dress violates the church which had been dropped toward the in with the group,14 the demure and code. Such violations may elicit hips, are now at the waist. The pleats self-effacing nature of the Amish is gossip but are not punished because on the sleeves of short-sleeved arguably not just a way to rebel

Vestoj On Slowness 47 Betwixt and Between

On Liminal Time in the Context of the Fashion Show

By Nathalie Khan

Illustration by Agoera.

49 Betwixt and Between

as a privilege reserved for the small elite attending such events. In this context, the idea of liminal time marks an important aspect of All I know is that the hours the fashion cycle. As a threshold are long, under these […] it implies the experience of a shift proceedings which – how shall from one phase to another. I say – which may at first sight When exploring the role seem reasonable, until they of liminal time in the context of become a habit. You may say contemporary fashion shows, its it is to prevent our reason absence within the digital frame from foundering. is noteworthy. Limitless reproductions of catwalk shows have in recent Samuel Beckett, times altered the experience of the Waiting For Godot live event, which is arguably no longer rooted within liminal space and time. Recently, the purpose and currency of Catwalk shows hardly ever begin on time. Delay, anticipation and deferment are traditionally part of the routine. the live event and ideas of temporality Waiting for the show to begin is, in have gained renewed attention in other words, an integral part of the fashion writing. Sociologist Agnès experience of the catwalk show as Rocamora’s detailed discussion of a live event. But time is precious fashion and time in relation to new and waiting not only exemplifies technologies and the proliferation anticipation, but also holds an explicit of digital platforms is especially vital value in itself. The time spent waiting for exploring the constant acceleration for a catwalk show to start can be within the symbolic production of described as liminal, a moment that fashion. Rocamora argues that with implies transition or passing from the instant ‘production of images, one state to another. In the age of fashion has become more immediate’ information technology and instant and that the speed with which fashion image production, waiting – as both discourse is produced challenges the process and ritual – is, however, hegemonic position of high fashion.2 a rare occurrence. The philosopher What is of relevance when we discuss Harold Schweizer argues that waiting fashion’s relationship with time can be regarded as a ‘temporary is how cultural forms such as the liberation from the economics of catwalk show are tested through time-is-money, as a brief respite constant acceleration of live streams from the haste of modern life’.1 and instant messaging on fashion While delayed catwalk shows during media platforms or social media. the otherwise hurried catwalk season In this regard, Rocamora refers are often considered unprofessional to Paul Virilio’s seminal essay The if not rude, waiting can also be seen Overexposed City. Here the French

51 Nathalie Khan cultural theorist speaks of ‘real time’ positions, which govern behavioural being replaced by virtual time which as well as institutional processes. His exposes ‘itself instantaneously’.3 Yet position differs from that of anthro­ physical space still holds meaning in pologist Claude Lévi-Strauss, who the light of liminal time. The moment differentiates between the social leading up to a catwalk show is hardly and the ritual as two separate entities.6 ever replicated online and in this sense Rather than making this distinction, the virtual world has not replaced the Turner defines liminality as a time ‘real’. Instead, the digital representation or space in which ‘normal modes of the live event has lost its threshold, of social action’ are scrutinised or as the stream begins the instant the challenged. The idea of liminal time model enters the runway. as a transitional stage is also described The actual waiting, suspension as ‘neither here nor there’, or as Turner and delay are only experienced or puts it: ‘betwixt’ – a stage between endured by the elite that is present separation and reassimilation.7 at the show. This marks what can be In his biography Dior by Dior, called ‘real time’. In order to measure designer Christian Dior describes duration in time, the philosopher the moment of waiting for the live Henry Bergson famously observed event as filled with anticipation; a lump of sugar dissolving in water. a stage before those on and off His aim was to prove that our notion the catwalk come together: of time relates to our own, subjective ‘Half an hour before the show, two understanding. Time spent waiting is people are seated comfortably side by informed through our lived experience, side on each step; but twenty minutes such as feelings of impatience or later, they disappeared beneath a sea of new arrivals. The staircase begins to look like an overloaded boat.’8 frustration, and not by what he describes as ‘mathematical time’.4 But in a postmodern context, time as well as consciousness is mobile and notions of duration incomplete. Time flows at different speeds and the instance of delay becomes a manifestation of the structure of the catwalk show, the ritual of waiting contextualising not only the reality of the live event, but also the reversal of social structures. According to the anthropologist Victor Turner liminal time can be seen as a passage or pathway that is culturally defined.5 Turner refers to ritual in relation to structural

Vestoj On Slowness Nathalie Khan Betwixt and Between

Here transitional time is described Both Horyn and Menkes speak another interpretation. Situations function of the catwalk show, as as an experience of space filling up, of delay as being symbolic of some­ rather than delay, become the focus a seasonal event which marks the a kind of temporality we associate with thing other than a simple deferral, of reflection. When Katy Perry finally beginning of the fashion calendar, the ritual of anticipation. The notion while instead commenting on a shift arrived, Twitter presented her posing has been severely challenged. Debate of waiting gains ‘meaning in relation in values within the industry. But the for the angry mob in order to deflect has questioned the validity of such to the context in which it is marked imminent authority of fashion media the situation. Liminal time is filled an exorbitant ritual in the light of out’.9 But liminal space and time appear is challenged even further through with a photo opportunity, until the the seismic shift within online fashion out-dated in the age of ‘speed culture’ the live stream.14 At the time of Marc first model enters the catwalk. Delay, promotion. As the World Wide Web as shows no longer rely on chronology Jacobs’ S/S 08 show fashion shows no longer empty space, becomes offers instant access, catwalk shows or mechanical speed, but are seen, were not yet reproduced in the way a spectacle in its own right. are no longer events exclusively shared and consumed at different we have witnessed since the prolife­ The meaning of waiting as meant for fashion’s elite. times and various virtual locations.10 ration of fashion media platforms. a metaphor has been discussed by Not the catwalk show, then, but Traditionally, those who wait With the rise of digital media, different theatre director Richard Schechner the moment that models step onto in silence are seen as powerless.11 structures are offered. Live streams in relation to Samuel Beckett’s Waiting the runway to present the new One could even argue that catwalk can be described as what art historian for Godot.16 Informed by an anthro­ season’s designs has lost its footing. shows are designed to make those Keith Moxey has called ‘visual time’.15 pological approach, he refers back to The time proceeding this moment, in power, such as fashion media or Fashion in the age of the internet has Victor Turner’s writing on ritual and however, has gained in significance. buyers, seem structurally inferior taught us to come to terms with the liminal time by arguing that waiting is Liminal time is still an integral part at the beginning of each show. asynchronous nature of temporal the play’s action and time its subject: of the fashion season. Existing An example of this is Marc Jacobs’ development. Time flows at a diff­- ‘The characters wish to ‘‘fill time’’ structures will continue to shape Spring/Summer 2008 collection erent speed at different locations. in such a way that the vessel “con­ the discourse of fashion and the premiere in New York, which began The concerns of fashion critics who taining’’ their activities is unnoticed online experience of live feeds will at 11 pm rather than the scheduled lament a two-hour delay appear less amid the activities themselves.’17 arguably become meaningless if the 9 pm. Critics Cathy Horyn and Suzy relevant in this context, as fashion In this context, activities are a experience of liminal time is lost Menkes both expressed frustration no longer relies on simulated ‘clock means to fill time, not unlike Vanessa within the virtual frame. What after attending the show: ‘Delayed time’. But what is significant here is Friedman’s Twitter feed. Time is not remains to be seen is how those by two hours […] Mr Jacobs’ spring that these shows do not simply present linear in Waiting for Godot; instead, present at the shows will continue show expressed perfectly the dis- a specific structure, temporal or not; the characters deflect from consciously to fill their time. 2 locating values of our culture’12 and structure is all they are. engaging with their own situations. ‘A bad, sad show from Marc Jacobs, During Milan fashion week, Schechner notes that confrontation running two hours late, high on Jeremy Scott’s Spring/Summer 2015 with time is painful in the same way hype and low on delivery, symbol­ised show for Moschino began one hour that waiting is shown as meaningless every­thing that is wrong with current behind schedule due to the late unless it is an activity in its own right. fashion’.13 One could state that these arrival of its celebrity guests Rita Ora What is important here is that the comments exemplify the reversal of and Katy Perry. According to fashion characters in Beckett’s play are waiting power structures. After all, as Turner critic Vanessa Friedman’s Twitter in vain. Godot of course never arrives, has argued, liminal space is an feed photographers started to become but instead actors and viewers alike expression of anti-structure which impatient: ‘Katy Perry now getting get to experience time. In this context is perceived as confrontation by those booed by @moschino. Really, very one could argue again that structure whose structure is undermined – in bad business.’ But the instant feed, itself is all that remains. this case two of the world’s most now an integral part of the discursive In the age of live feeds and instant acclaimed fashion critics. narrative of the fashion show, offers image reproduction the role and

Vestoj On Slowness 55 Topshop, London, 2014. DWELLING TIME

On Examining Experience Economy and the Third Space in Fashion

By Karinna Nobbs With photographs by Polly Brown

Jigsaw, London, 2014.

59 Dwelling Time

To paraphrase Andy Warhol, stores are twenty-first century museums and the blending of culture, leisure and retail is today an unmistakable global trend within the fashion industry. In consumer culture the third space is one of the foremost locations in your life – somewhere to spend both time and money and where social aspects are stressed and the link to leisure pursuits is of prime importance. Someday all department stores The creation of third space zones in will become museums and stores works on the premise that the all museums will become contents of the area will engage the department stores. consumer for longer than the products alone would, thereby in- Andy Warhol creasing what is known as ‘dwell time’. This is especially the case if seating areas, art and books are A white Erco bench. 032c. An exhibition by The Selby. A bubble tea salon. The Gentlemen Barbers. Over the included, as these are commonly last couple of years, all have been enjoyed in a more time-consuming introduced into the fashion retail fashion. Marketing scholar Andrew environment as part of a recipe for Parsons has shown that the more time ‘third space’. First identified within customers spend in a store, the more a sociological context by Ray Olden- likely they are to buy or buy more, burg in 1989, this concept refers to making third space an attractive ‘places apart from the home (first proposition for fashion brands.3 space) and workplace (second space) Similarly, the inclusion of material where individuals can freely gather, with prominent cultural capital such exchange ideas and socialise’.1 as art, books and lifestyle magazines, Building on Oldenburg’s definition, arguably functions to elevate the trend scout and retail specialist perception and importance of a Christian Mikunda describes this fashion store or brand. As such, so-called third space in commerce third space can be described as as ‘somewhere which is not work or having a ‘halo effect’, enhancing home but a comfortable space to the level of sophistication of a retail browse, relax and meet people, even environment and therefore making enjoy a meal’.2 Traditionally focused it more attractive to customers. on community and culture, third One of the main reasons that third spaces have in contemporary space has emerged within fashion capitalist culture become centred is indeed due to the increasing on commerce and consumption. sophistication of consumers.

61 Karinna Nobbs

As marketing consultants David Lewis and Darren Bridger have pointed out,

Topshop, London, 2014.

Vestoj On Slowness Karinna Nobbs customers today are more independent, intangible that may or may not pay involved, individualistic­ and informed off. It is known that the level of risks than ever before due to a scarcity and costs increases as you diversify of time, attention and trust.4 For a from your core business, and retailers stretched consumer, merging retail often find that certain third space and leisure/culture into one space elements, particularly coffee table could thus be both a desirable and books, lifestyle magazines and art, practical solution. do not actually sell. Instead, they In 1998 the management seem to function more like props strategists Joseph Pine and James promoting a scene of intellectualism Gilmore wrote about the ‘Experience and elitism for the brand. Viewed as Economy’, set to follow the agrarian such, third space can lose its potential economy, the industrial economy and value and meaning as it becomes the more recent service economy.5 part of a commercial formula in Arguing that the consumer’s search the quest for custom. for meaning is no longer provided by At the opposite end of the the mere consumption of products spectrum, when the third space is or services, they instead suggested too ‘good’ or overt, it can cannibalise that businesses should devise attention from the products and memorable events for their clients, brand. In addition, more conven- making the memory of the event in tionally minded customers often effect the product or experience see the blurring of retail and leisure consumed. Almost two decades later, as too distracting, preferring to see this notion is more relevant than ever. art in an art gallery, drink coffee As e-commerce increases, brick and in a coffee shop and buy clothes in mortar stores are in evermore need a clothing store. In this view, third to evolve and offer added content in space merely dilutes the experiential order to attract and maintain value of each activity. customers. Online third spaces are The questions remains, then, hard to create and their sensory whether fashion brands should appeal and experiential nature can invest in third space within retail be used by stores as a tool for com- environments. While it does create petitive advantage in terms of PR brand engagement, which can trans- value. Bearing this in mind, third late into sales, this is contingent on space, when executed strategically, the third space elements being could hence be the saviour of brick relevant to what a specific brand’s and mortar stores and help keep high customers aspire to and how they streets vibrant and well populated. Yet like to spend their time. After all, it is not without its issues. Investing the day every other fashion store in third space involves both risks and has a bookshop, a barber and a costs, as the retailer gives up pure coffee shop, the entire concept risks selling space for something more becoming utterly meaningless. 2 London, 2014. Jigsaw,

Vestoj On Slowness Copyright Historical Picture Archive/CORBIS. A Time for Dressing

On the Symbolic Importance of Splendour

By Professor Barbara Vinken

Nineteenth century magazine illustration, England. Artist unknown.

67 A Time for Dressing

Dressing is seen today as an activity that should take up little time and be as casual as possible. Not only do we no into the latest fashion icon. Marie longer have servants at home to help Thérèse procured an exceedingly us bathe, dress, do our hair and make- ­ expensive, all French wardrobe for up, we also no longer receive people or her daughter and set about trans­ dictate letters while getting dressed. In forming the girl into a proper fashion this unceremonious age of ours, where doll. Her body and allure were no time can be wasted with what we modelled after the French mode: her consider superficial frivolities, we have teeth were set straight, her hairline lost patience for any kind of dress code. displaced. Ballet teachers taught her Whereas today clothes are chosen so to glide as if weightless in the French that they can easily transition from fashion. The symbolic weight of daywear to evening­wear, we appear clothes, of dressing and undressing, to have forgotten that even in the can already be glimpsed when we bourgeois societies of the nineteenth think of the formal protocol Marie century people were expected to Antoinette underwent upon crossing change clothes at least once a day. the border. The princess was required Except for very special occasions like to leave everything Austrian behind weddings or funerals, getting dressed in order to become the Queen of in our present-day Western world is France, an event which was embodied not the ceremonially staged, time- in the symbolically charged, elaborate consuming and heavily symbolic activity ceremony of her undressing down it once was, but rather one that is inti- to shirt and stockings. With these mate, private and invisible to the public. clothes, the princess left her old self It was not always like this however. In behind to be literally invested into the French absolutist court of the late another identity: that of la dauphine, seven­teenth and eighteenth centuries, the French queen to be. which set the tone for the fashionable The great French moralist Jean world up to the Revolution, the aristo­ de la Bruyère once wrote that all the cracy cared above all about investment aristocracy was lacking was a private in the most literal sense of the term: life – the very core value of bourgeois the Latin investire means ‘to clothe’. happiness.2 In France, everyone at Getting dressed was possibly the most court was constantly on display. The important daily ceremony for both life of Marie Antoinette, minutely men and women at the French absolu- ­ prescribed by etiquette, consisted of tist court – and even more so for the constant self-exhibition. Central to last queen of the Ancien Régime, the this exhibition were the clothing most infelicitous Marie Antoinette.1 ceremonies that had nothing private When her mother, Marie Thérèse about them. The lever, the coucher, of Austria, had set her mind on the diverse clothes-changing cere- making the Habsburg princess the monies throughout the day; all were next queen of France, considerable central daily happenings that took time and money was spent to turn her place in the public eye. The royal

69 Barbara Vinken A Time for Dressing time table, minutely regulated, was performed the order of the body she can hand it to Marie Antoinette, to bend the strict etiquette regulating a seemingly ceaseless protocol: after politic. The elaborate washing, shivering in her bed, the duchesse access to the royal chambers in the having received her finery every dressing, coiffure and make-up in of Orléans enters the room, and the designer’s favour – thus overturning morning in a basket, the Queen front of and by the court was not shirt is passed to her. But even she the time-honoured hierarchies that the chose what dress to wear from a book the putting on of a mask, or an empty does not manage to give it to the court was so sensitive to. While Marie with fabric samples; her choice was frivolous covering over a true, authentic dauphine, since at this moment, Antoinette gradually excluded the between twelve robes à la française, nature as bourgeois critique would her Royal Highness, the contesse court from her dressing ceremonies, twelve less ostentatious dresses with later see it. Instead, the glory of the de Provence, enters and the shirt is the demi-monde was ushered in: a smaller panier and twelve deshabillés, royal body, invested in its royal insig- given to her. Marie Antoinette, with hairdressers and stylists suddenly or informal dresses. Then the process nia, represented the cosmic order in her arms crossed over her naked had access to the Queen. The French of dressing started, in full presence all its splendour for everyone to see. bosom, is heard to have exclaimed: kingdom, one of the great kingdoms of the ladies of the court. Every piece By the time Marie Antoinette ‘How awfully inconvenient!’3 of the world, was ruled, the gossip- the Queen was going to wear had entered the stage however, this God- As this story shows, Marie mongers knew, by a fashion muslin to be handed over according to the willed order was starting to get out of Antoinette was fated to undermine ministry. By opening up the sacred strict hierarchical order of the ladies joint. The queen might have felt it the link between appearance and chambers of Versailles to the demi- present. There were numerous half breaking down without being able to being that had dominated the French monde, Marie Antoinette unintentio- official toilettes every day, where only articulate it – her trouble to conform court for so long. By staging herself nally undermined the protocols of a few ladies in waiting were present, to the ceremonies of the court arguably as an individual, a carefully and dressing and getting dressed and, but the most important toilette was being a symptom of this. Marie obviously made-up fashionable thereby, the very idea of a God-given the toilette de répresentation before Antoinette, though the most lavishly beauty, she dressed, as her alarmed hierarchy of the estates. Resisting the everyday attending of mass, a dressed woman at court, had little mother back in Vienna scolded her, the ceremony of dressing, she no moment witnessed by all the ladies patience with constantly putting not as a Queen, but as an actress. longer performed her most important of the court. Never seen as a waste of herself on display and thus with While the adorned body of the king function: to display the hierarchical time, this was instead considered enacting the legitimate hierarchy or queen, like that of the ranks of celestial order in her adorned body for performance of essential importance. of the courtly order of ranks. A the clergy or the aristo­cracy, put on both the court and the people. The order of rank at court was little anecdote told by the brothers display the idealised being, the clothes As we have seen, the act of getting mirrored in the literal closeness to Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, both of an actress are exchang­eable and dressed took up a vast amount of time the royal body during those dressing French naturalistic writers from the variable and show only, if anything, in the Ancien Régime, arguably to ceremonies. Those high in rank had nineteenth century, not only affords the arbitrariness of clothing. reflect its enormous symbolic import- the privilege of handing the clothes to a glimpse into the rigid and cere- Resisting the hierarchical ways ance. As if to prove this point, the more the king or queen, and the body of the monial etiquette of the Queen’s of the etiquette, Marie Antoinette important you were, the more time it royal couple was meant to illustrate dressing ceremony, but also allows with­drew her body from the hands would take to get dressed. But, contrary the divine right of kings as part of a us to measure her resistance to it: and eyes of the aristocracy to hand to contemporary mores, this was beautifully ordered cosmos. Taking It is a cold winter day at it over to professionals. She no longer neither considered idle vanity nor a the time to dress that body was to Versailles, and the dauphine, naked relied on the aristo­cratic hairdresser frivolous passe-temps. Rather it was give it its most important function, in bed, is about to put on her shirt, appointed for the Queen’s coiffure, implicitly understood to be an activity namely to incarnate the literal handed over by a première femme de but turned to Jean-François Autier, of emblematic importance, and as such meaning of cosmos: adornment. chambre when a lady in waiting, une the fashionable hairstylist better it was a very public act. The cosmic The act of dressing, which took up femme d’atours, enters. Since she is known as ‘Léonard’. She spent hours order, represented in the regulation of a substantial part of the day, was here higher in rank and thus symbolically in a tête-à-tête with the modiste Rose the ranks, was performed and upheld of the highest symbolic importance. closer to the body of the Queen, the Bertin, the rising star of the emerging until it could be maintained no longer. 2 It was considered an investment that shirt is handed over to her. But before Parisian fashion scene, and even tried

Vestoj On Slowness 71 The Copyright William Morris Gallery, London Borough of Waltham Forest Dignity of Beauty and Fitness

On May Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement

By Karlijn Slegers

Mary Morris, 1908. Photographer G.C Beresford.

73 The Dignity of Beauty and Fitness

of consumer goods was not met only with enthusiasm. In fact, opposition, based mainly on the fear of growing inequities and a highly romanticised notion of simpler times, rose steadily. Rapid industrialisation resulted in environmental pollution and dismal conditions for the working classes, and opponents began campaigning for a better quality of both life and goods. According to adversaries of industrialisation, the division of labour which accompanied mecha- nisation and mass-production did not just degrade human labour, but also the fruits originating from it; fruits which, though affordable, were all too often the product of inferior and shoddy workmanship.2 Quantity, then, arguably started In the late nineteenth century, Great Britain was well on its way to becoming a fully industrialised society. The First to prevail over quality, making the and Second Industrial Revolutions, opposition yearn for times past. In along with the peace, prosperity and The Stones of Venice, for instance, national self-confidence of the Victorian the prominent English art critic and era, had paved the way for continuous painter John Ruskin looked to medieval technological progress and economic times for inspiration, when craftsmen growth. These developments in turn worked with their hands to create prompted vast social changes that what their supposedly unfettered transformed the very core of British minds conjured up.3 This image of society. As early as 1829, the Vic- the free artisan became an enduring torian Scottish writer and historian and influential one, providing both Thomas Carlyle stated that his time soil and stimulation for one of the should be referred to as the Age of most significant international design Machinery, arguing: ‘On every hand developments of the era: the Arts and the living artisan is driven from his Crafts movement. Gathering force workshop, to make room for a spe- in the 1880s, the Arts and Crafts edier inanimate one. The shuttle drops movement actively rebelled against from the fingers of the weaver, and the loss of workmanship and the falls into iron fingers that ply it faster.’1 designer-craftsman duality that was As Carlyle’s choice of words caused by the accelerating pace suggests, the ever-increasing mech­ of industrialisation.4 Following anisation and industrial production Ruskin’s preference for creative

75 Karlijn Slegers and independent craftspeople, its Arts and Crafts embroidery was proponents fervently resisted the dedicated to restoring the value idea of having workers perform increa­ of traditional rural embroidery, singly specialised tasks; rather, they and their work often formed part encouraged artisans to go back into of the wider progress of the Healthy their work-shops, where they could and Artistic Dress Union founded in pick up their looms, needles and the 1890s by reform-minded artists other tools in order to start reuniting to propagate ‘sound ideas on the design with craft.5 subject of dress’.7 William Morris, the main Deriving from the Rational Dress proponent of the Arts and Crafts Society which in 1888 had stated in movement, was a romantic poet their Gazette that they protested and dreamer as well as an astute ‘against the introduction of any businessman and political cam- fashion in dress that either deforms paigner. He designed all from the figure, impedes the movement wallpaper to textiles and printed of the body, or in any way tends to matter, and his great enthusiasm injure health’, the Healthy and and magnetism ensured that the Artistic Dress Union unsurprisingly movement soon became a cultural rejected Paris-based fashion styles. force to be reckoned with. While the Instead they advocated garments that work was firmly rooted in the wider adhered to the natural body shape of women and to the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement. Handcrafted, context of social reform, the beauty and status of designs created by an individual artisan nevertheless lay at its very core. Like her father, Mary ‘May’ Morris was a designer, teacher, writer and commentator who was committed to strengthening the position of the crafts in a society ruled by industrial capitalism.6 She became the leading advocate and promoter of Arts and Crafts embroidery, and took over the em- broidery section of Morris & Co in 1885 at the tender age of twenty- three, with resulting great success. In addition to designing the bulk of the firm’s embroidery patterns her- self, she took great care in supervising all female employees who together created the majority of Morris & Co’s embroideries. The female practice of

Vestoj On Slowness Karlijn Slegers The Dignity of Beauty and Fitness

have done so much to debase the Over a decade earlier, William entrepreneurial example for other public taste’, art needlework sought to Morris had made a similar claim, women of her time. However, despite elevate the practice of embroidery.10 stating that we should ‘resist change the success of ‘her’ craft, she was Renewing elements of earlier styles, for the sake of change’, while still worried about the fate of crafts- in particular of medieval and Renais- ‘[insisting] on having materials for manship in general. In 1919, in sance times, it was characterised by [our] dresses that are excellent of what would become her last article high-quality materials, simplicity, their kind, and beautiful of their on embroidery, she expressed her realistic colours, clear lines, original, kind’.14 After all, or so he reasoned, concern that ‘the crafts, which one hand-made designs, and artistic skills ‘when you have a dress of even mode- must insist are an essential part of – all qualities that May Morris consi- rately costly materials you won’t be the industrial life in England, are dead dered of paramount importance.11 in a hurry to see the end of it’.15 or fast dying; they are passing rapidly Throughout the years, Morris To ensure that high-quality mate- in a single generation’.17 She still had never refrained from expressing and rials were worked into high-quality hopes, though, as did her father and spreading her idealistic thoughts on products, they had to be handled by his contemporaries before her, that embroidery. She published several skilled artisans. According to May the crafts would one day be fully articles on the subject and wrote her Morris, a skilled artisan herself, ‘the revived. After all, in order to keep most important document, Decorative hurry of modern life and the advent creating qualitative, one-of-a-kind Needlework, in 1893. Consisting of a of cheap machine-work’ had mainly and slow work that is ‘guarded as long brief historical overview of needlework, led to shoddy ‘work that looks shabby as may be against the unavoidable the book dispenses practical know­ in a month’.16 To create the opposite, wear and tear of time’ – in so far comparably ahistorical in style and ledge of embroidery for those who she believed an embroideress should as anything can ever resist time’s comfortable, these dresses came to ‘have a love for it and a wish to devote both design and execute. Ideally, inevitable pull – the craftsmanship define the way that women were clad a little time and patience to its then, she should produce embroidery that creates it should not be discarded 12 in the Arts and Crafts movement. practice’. Interwoven with her from start to finish; at the very least ‘as ridiculous and out of date’ either. 2 Hand-embroidery was used with in- explanation of feather stitches, advice it meant that she should interpret creasing frequency to add an artistic on proper designs and descriptions designs instead of copying them element to these otherwise simple of the colours necessary for any unthinkingly. By enhancing the dresses, commonly made of plain embroidery palette, May Morris also connection between, in this case, linen or wool serge, because, as the bestowed ideological titbits on the an embroideress and her craft, Morris dress historian Stella Mary Newton disparity between fleeting fashion also hoped to increase workers’ has noted, ‘the mark of aesthetic and durable craftsmanship: pleasure in creating their own pieces rather than merely comfortable dress ‘[Work] done at the demand by hand. Completely in sync with was its embroidery’.8 of fashion or caprice and that done the Arts and Crafts ideals, she Rejecting the popular Berlin inevitably, that is, for its own sake, proposed to move away from the woolwork, which had originated in are as widely dissimilar as can be: division of labour and the increasingly the early nineteenth century and the first being discarded in a month bad working conditions that had remained immensely widespread or so as ridiculous and out of date, emerged during industrialisation. for several decades, Arts and Crafts and the other remaining with us in all May Morris’ wish to revitalise embroidery advocated what became its dignity of beauty and fitness, to be needlework turned out to be more known as ‘art needlework’.9 As guarded as long as may be against the than that; in the end, she played opposed to ‘the impossible parrots, unavoidable wear and tear of time.’13 a major part in its eventual reap- animals, and groups of flowers […that] (original emphasis) praisal. In doing so, she set a strong,

Vestoj On Slowness 79 Boro Mottainai

All photographs by Michel Gurfinkle and Graham Matthers. On the Beauty of Things Impermanent, Imperfect and Incomplete

By Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada With a selection of boro compiled by Gordon Reece and Philippe Boudin

80 Boro Mottainai

Over the past decade a genre of Japanese folk textiles has begun to spark interest in the West. These patched and mended garments and quilt covers have become collectively identified under the term boro, referring to objects that have been used, broken, and worn to tatters and also to those that have been extensively repaired and lovingly used. Beyond the rough surfaces of the pieces, viewers can sense the obvious manifestation of creativity: the aesthetic transmutation of ordinary rags by human hands, and the creation of beauty. Each boro is a hand-sewn assemblage with a unique shape, size, and history. The laboriously sewn, evenly sized strips of one boro contrast with the practical, strategic placement of scraps-over-holes in another. There is no cutting into the cloth for sleeves or darts like in Western clothing, which means that worn clothing could be easily taken apart and transformed into coverlets and mattresses. The vernacular cloth used by common folk was woven with cellulose fibres, which are most effectively dyed with natural indigo. As a result the designs are predominately blue in a variety of shades and in stripes and some plaids. The textile fragments used for patching and repair came from a wide variety of sources. Some pieces were saved and collected in a household over generations of family members living and dying. Most of them were recycled from cotton clothing and other castaway rags. Today we automatically assume that the bits and scraps of fabric used to make the boro patchwork quilt covers or to mend garments were discards used far beyond their normal, expected life cycle. Junk, in other words. Not so. Nor were boro ‘recycled’ as we use the word, meaning trying to reuse something beyond the point where it is ‘normally’ thrown away. Contrary to the assumptions in our object- jaded lifestyle, what we now designate as boro were simply a stage in textiles’ natural life.

83 Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada Boro Mottainai

Textiles in the countryside were made at home; farmhouses usu- in objects (of acknowledging the intelligence of the objects themselves), ally contained one or more working looms; weaving alone involved of putting into our lives things made with care and intentive attention. long hours of labour, and textiles were seen as mottai – objects In Japan and everywhere in the world, from the dawn of history from and of life, received from and credited to whatever forces were until the early years of the twentieth century, cloth – any cloth – was thought to be responsible for life and living. It was only natural, precious, an essence of human labour and effort, a metaphor of life’s then, that a textile’s life extended far beyond the life of the object interactions and vicissitudes. Boro provide fertile ground for the into which it was first made. consideration of conventional values of time, labour, and of materials The boro textiles encourage thoughtful assessment as well as and resources. They nudge us to question our values and to broaden aesthetic appreciation of the act of mending, the menders, and the our world, challenging us to consider the perspectives of all those mended objects. Subject to exhaustive repairs to maintain an element involved in an object’s genesis and transmutation: the creator, the of functionality, they often underwent significant transformation mender, the owner, the community member, and the outsider. from their original form – kimono into a basic coverlet, futon into Encouraging thoughtful assessment of notions of beauty, value, work clothes. Such transformation of goods, a common practice scarcity, care, and respect for labour in both the past and in today’s of economy in resources, resulted in a massive accumulation of time consume-consume-and-dump contexts, boro invite viewers to and memory of people who used the repaired and recycled objects. reassess the concept of value and consider the meaning of mending

These artefacts from the past link us to stories at once personal, and recycling in our throwaway culture. 2 social, and cultural. Signifying the unspoken relationships among the family members who worked on them and used them, boro open a window into the daily life experiences of those who came before us; their very existence is a gift. Viewing the boro we wonder who pieced and patched the textile, stitching and darning it so carefully and thoroughly? And who was the recipient of such love and care? Who used the coverlet night after night and later passed it on to a younger generation? The careful and patient act of repairing or reinforcing mundane, well-worn objects must have provided a foundation for personal relationships and served as a form of silent dialogue among family members. Their transformation of material represents a visual record of the social and cultural history of common folks in Japan. Our world today is distant enough from when boro were made so that we are able to treasure these textiles and value their ‘born- ness’. Their message of care, of family lives lived, of warmth and comfort eked out of minimum materials we see with a mixture of sympathy, nostalgia, delight, and rueful concern for the poverty of the past as well as for ourselves, slipping away from the life values that sustained our forebears. Yet, boro also confront us with possi- bility – of reinventing for the twenty-first century an attitude and directness of practice. This means seeing things as they are, of enjoying and relating directly to materials and the work crystallised

Vestoj On Slowness 85

What an Old Woman Will Wear by lydia davis 1986

She looked forward to being an old woman and wear- ing strange clothes. She would wear a shapeless dark brown or black dress of thin material, perhaps with little flowers on it, certainly frayed at the neck and hem and under the arms, and hanging lopsided from her bony shoulders down past her bony hips and knees. She would wear a straw hat with her brown dress in the summer, and then in the cold weather a turban or a helmet and a warm coat of something black and curly like lamb’s wool. Less interesting would be her black shoes with their square heels and her thick stockings gathered around her ankles. But before she was that old, she would still be a good deal older than she was now, and she also looked forward to being that age, what would be called past the prime of her life and slowing down. If she had a husband, she would sit out on the lawn with her husband. She hoped she would have a husband by then. Or still have one. She had once had a hus- band, and she wasn’t surprised that she had once had one, didn’t have one now, and hoped to have one later in her life. Everything seemed to happen in the right From Break It Down. order, generally. She had also had a child; the child

97 lydia davis what an old woman will wear was growing, and in a few more years the child would Yes, it was in old age that everything would break be grown and she would want to slow down and have down. Her hearing would go. It was already going. someone to talk to. She had to cup her hands around her ears in certain She told her friend Mitchell, as they were sitting situations to distinguish words at all. She would have together on a park bench, that she was looking forward operations for cataracts on both eyes, and before that to her late middle age. That was what she could call it, she would be able to see things only straight ahead since she was now past what another friend had called in spots like coins, nothing to the sides. She would her late youth and well into her early middle age. It misplace things. She hoped she would still have the will be so much calmer, she said to Mitchell, because use of her legs. of the absence of sexual desire. She would go into the post office wearing a straw Absence? he said, and he seemed angry, although hat that sat too high up on her head. She would finish he was no older than she. her business and make her way from the counter out The lessening of sexual desire, then, she said. past the line of people waiting that would include a He looked dubious, as far as she could tell, though he little baby flat on its back in its carriage. She would was out of sorts that afternoon and had only looked spot the baby, smile a greedy, painful smile with a few either dubious or angry at everything she had said teeth showing, say something out loud to the line of so far. people, who would not respond, and go over to look at Then he answered, as though it was one thing he the baby. was sure of, while she was certainly not sure of it, that She would be seventy-six, and she would have to there would be more wisdom at that age. But think lie down for a while because she had been talking and of the pain, he went on, or at best the problems with planned to talk again later in the evening. She was one’s health, and he pointed to a couple in late middle going to a party. She was going to the party only to age who were entering the park together, arm in arm. make sure that certain people knew she was still alive. She had already been watching them. At the party, nearly everyone would avoid talking to Right now they are probably in pain, he said. It her. No one would admire it when she drank too much. was true that although they were upright, they held on She would have trouble sleeping, waking often to each other too firmly and the footsteps of the man in the night and staying awake early in the morning were tentative. Who knew what pain they might be when it was still dark, feeling as alone in the world suffering? She thought of all the people of late middle as she would ever feel. She would go out early and age and old age in the city whose pain was not always sometimes dig up a small plant from a neighbour’s visible on their faces. garden, looking first to see that her neighbour’s blinds

98 99 lydia davis what an old woman will wear were down. When she sat in a train or a bus with her But she was not looking forward only to that age, eyes fixed on the scenery outside the window, she she said to Mitchell, when things would slow down would hum without stopping for an hour at a time and when she would have a husband who had slowed in a high-pitched, quavering voice that sounded a down too, she was also looking forward to a time about little like a mosquito, so that people around her would twenty years after that when she could wear any become irritated. When she stopped humming, she hat she wanted to and not care if she looked foolish, would be asleep with her head tipped back and her and wouldn’t even have a husband to tell her she mouth open. looked foolish. But first there would be the slowing down, a little Her friend Mitchell did not appear to understand past the prime, when there would not be as much her at all. going on, not as much as there was now, when she Though of course she knew it might be true that wouldn’t expect as much, not as much as she did now, when the time came, a hat and that freedom would when she either would or would not have achieved not make up for everything else she had lost with the a certain position that was not likely to change, and coming of old age. And now that she had said this out best of all when she would have developed some fixed loud, she thought maybe there was no joy, after all, in habits, so she would know they were going to sit out even thinking about such freedom. on the lawn after supper, for example, she and her husband, and read their books, in the long evenings of summer, her husband in shorts and she in a clean skirt and blouse with her bare feet up on the edge of his chair, and maybe even her mother or his mother there too, reading a book, and the mother would be twenty years older than she was, and therefore well into her old age, though still able to dig in the garden, and they would all dig in the garden together, and pick up leaves, or plan the garden together; they would stand under the sky on this little piece of ground here in the city, planning it out together, the way it should be, surrounding them as they sit in the evening on three folding chairs close together, reading and rarely saying a word.

100 101 Dressing in Shadows and Light

On the Birth of Fashion Photography

The following photographs were first published in the April 1911 issue of Art et Décoration as a portfolio of couturier Paul Poiret’s work taken by the then fine art photographer Edward Steichen. Though not the first fashion photographs per se, the series was pioneering in its use of an essentially atmospheric setting, a departure from the largely illustrative and basic fashion photographs published in the late nineteenth century. More than a decade would pass before Steichen took another fashion photograph, but in 1922 Condé Nast persuaded him to join the staff at both Vogue and Vanity Fair, a move that would make Steichen one of the most celebrated fashion photographers of his time and his work a template for the modern fashion photographer.

103

Vestoj On Slowness 109

Vestoj On Slowness 115 FASHION FREEZE FRAME

Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? 1962. Director Robert Aldrich. Film still. On Human Artefacts and Stopping the Clock

By Nilgin Yusuf

117 Fashion Freeze Frame

of time because they have chosen to stop the clock at a moment that feels significant, appropriate or pleasing. However, unlike the woolly mammoth, which is greeted with gasps of wonderment, these examples of the unfashionable are more ambig­ uously received. In 1945 historian James Laver went as far as pinning a mathematical equation to the pheno­- menon, claiming that after ten years, fashion is seen as hideous and after twenty years, it is ridiculous.2 So it is that fashion’s frozen are commonly dismissed, scorned or made fun of In geology, archaeology and palaeontology, the frozen is cause for celebration. Fossils, remains of Roman cities, – views perpetuated by representations dinosaur bones or a perfectly in film, photography and literature. preserved woolly mammoth have ‘The stars are ageless, aren’t they?’ all become the focus of intense uttered Norma Desmond in Billy media attention, entertainment and Wilder’s 1950 cinema classic, Sunset education. Through these objects, Boulevard. The tragic character, played worlds thought lost are re-imagined by Gloria Swanson, presents a melo­ with increasing technical audacity, dramatic and delusional case for making the frozen a portal through not moving with the times. As a silent which our imaginations can fly and movie actress who failed to make the alternative realities can be conjured. transition to talkies, Norma Desmond Fashion, by contrast, is not so is stuck. As she glides around her hot on the frozen – especially if the Hollywood mansion, waiting for the preserved happens to still be alive moment when she will be adored and kicking. The ageing ted, the once more (‘I was always big. It’s the resolute goth, the staunch classicist pictures that got small.’) we are or the English eccentric, these are offered a morality tale on what happens types who refuse to constantly modify to women who refuse to age gracefully their appearance in line with current and leave the stage, exit left, when mores because they have found some­ their time is up. A similar message is thing: a moment, an identity, a part of sent in What Ever Happened to Baby their lives, that they wish to preserve.1 Jane? from 1962. Bette Davis’ inter­ While exposed to the same pressures pretation of one time child star Baby as the rest of us, constantly buffeted Jane Hudson, visage garishly painted, by waves of ideal fashion through lined, and framed by ringlets, is difficult media, marketing, culture and to forget. The cruel tormentor of her society, they endure the ravages crippled sister, her psyche is forever

119 Nilgin Yusuf Fashion Freeze Frame childlike, that of a cruel and spoilt faded creature. In a 1965 series called in 1968 – the year that he, alongside endurance. They have rejected the infant, perhaps damaged by her ‘Fashion Independents’ for Harper’s his twin brother Reginald, was given cyclical temptations laid before them childhood fame. Happiest when clad Bazaar, Arbus points her camera life imprisonment for murder. British and chosen a personal narrative of in baby doll ruffles, she never tires at Mrs. T. Charlton Henry who by tailor, Mark Powell, recalls that when dress that retains its own authenticity of recreating the act that she used contrast resembles an ancient bird he was commissioned to make a suit and integrity. In fields across the arts to perform with her Daddy. That was of prey. She twinkles in her best for Ronnie Kray in the 1980s, his and humanities, from sub-cultural her moment and that is where she couture as she sits perched, bejewelled exacting client wanted it ‘cut in exactly theory and anthropology to social chooses to stay. Through the tools and impassive. While losing the battle the style of a 1968 suit: single breasted, studies and fashion theory, there is of her performance, dress, make-up against youth, these women present narrow lapels’.3 For the man doing a growing body of material around and hair, she is able to transport both stoicism and vulnerability. time, the clock had literally stopped the ageing population that is perhaps herself back to the time of her life. Arbus’ lens is compassionate and when the prison gates clanked behind an indication of a wider re-evaluation Like Norma Desmond, she is depicted soul­ful. These women survive. Their him. Life would be forever 1968. of the effect of time on fashion. There as a deranged, disturbed woman ward­robes may be frozen but their For those who concern themselves is no doubt that these individuals – clearly not an advisable choice. pre-Botox faces are full of fallibility with fashionable matters, nothing have a huge amount to offer the style Photographer Diane Arbus’ black and humanity; every line is an expe­ could be worse than to be considered connoisseur culturally, historically and white portrait of former debutante rience, a story, a triumph or regret. passé. After all, fashion is change and and semantically. Could these walking Brenda Diana Duff Frazier is another While such women are often change is fashion. The fashionable are archives or human artefacts become poignant example of fashion’s shelved regarded tragically – mourning a lost in a state of constant flux and transition; the new icons of sustainability? After dolls. Duff Frazier, who in 1938 was youth or former splendour – frozen proud to be mirrors of change, works all, they are not supporting a system Life Magazine’s ‘Girl of The Year’, is men of fashion are commonly subjects in progress. To be deemed out of step that exploits its workers and usurps revisited twenty-eight years later by of comic relief. Rod Stewart may now with the times, to be branded ‘last the earth’s resources. Instead of Arbus for Esquire magazine. We see be approaching his seventies but he season’ carries both sartorial and scorned, our fashion mammoths her posing in bed (is she sick or is this continues to sport the same bleached social stigma. It is, as Laver tells us, should perhaps be seen as indispens­ a metaphor for life on hold?), wearing blonde hair that he had in the Seven­ ridiculous. Those in fashion observe able portals into worlds thought lost, a white fur stole around her narrow ties. Roberto Cavalli, Hugh Hefner those ‘out of fashion’ with fascinated alternative realities that offer up shoulders, her fragile fingers holding and Peter Stringfellow wear similar pity or dismissive disdain. These another way of life. By paying these a cigarette. She is a frail, fluttering, deep suntans, flashes of jewellery and belligerently unfashionable, set in image veterans their due respect, chest hair. The narrative seems to be sartorial aspic, are unsettling, per­ might we not learn to re-negotiate that while women find it hard to part plexing, disturbing. The fashionable our own wardrobes and the fashion

with their figure or looks, for certain do not get on with the unfashionable; system itself? 2 men (whose wealth and success once they are seen as unrefined, unsophisti­- invited female adoration) the anxiety cated and irrelevant. The typical is centred on their diminishing potency fashion response towards our frozen and virility. Rod Stewart may no says something about cultural anxiety; longer be a rutting young stallion of the fear of ageing and death, as well a performer but his big hair remains, as of being left behind. a symbol of his one time sexual allure Nevertheless, there are many and magnetism; a follicle link to when things to admire in those who refuse he was most powerful. to move with the times. These For Ronald ‘Ronnie’ Kray, the individuals have withstood consum­ Brenda Diana Duff Frazier in Esquire, legendary British gangster of the 1950s erism’s onslaught and should be 1966. Photographer Diane Arbus. and 1960s, life as he knew it stopped applauded for their fortitude and

Vestoj On Slowness 121 Dialogue Between Fashion and Death by giacomo leopardi 1824

Fashion Madam Death, Madam Death! Death Wait until your time comes, and then I will appear without being called by you. Fashion Madam Death! Death Go to the devil. I will come when you least expect me. Fashion As if I were not immortal! Death Immortal? As the poet says, ‘Already has passed the thousandth year,’ since the age of immortals ended. Fashion Madam is as much a Petrarchist as if she were an Italian poet of the fifteenth or eighteenth century. Death I like Petrarch because he composed my triumph, and because he refers so often to me. But I must be moving. Fashion Stay! For the love you bear to the seven cardinal sins, stop a moment and look at me. Death Well. I am looking. Fashion Do you not recognise me? Death You must know that I have bad sight, and am without spectacles. The English make none to suit me; and if they did, I should not know where to put them. Fashion I am Fashion, your sister. From Operette Morali. Death My sister?

123 giacomo leopardi dialogue between fashion and death

Fashion Yes. Do you not remember we are both born have heads of the same shape, as in parts of America of Decay? and Asia. I torture and cripple people with small shoes. Death As if I, who am the chief enemy of Memory, I stifle women with stays so tight, that their eyes start should recollect it! from their heads; and I play a thousand similar pranks. Fashion But I do. I know also that we both equally I also frequently persuade and force men of refinement profit by the incessant change and destruction of to bear daily numberless fatigues and discomforts, things here below, although you do so in one way, and and often real sufferings; and some even die gloriously I in another. for love of me. I will say nothing of the headaches, Death Unless you are speaking to yourself, or to some colds, inflammations of all kinds, fevers – daily, tertian, one inside your throat, raise your voice, and pronounce and quartan – which men gain by their obedience to your words more distinctly. If you go mumbling be- me. They are content to shiver with cold, or melt with tween your teeth with that thin spider-voice of yours, heat, simply because it is my will that they cover their I shall never understand you; because you ought shoulders with wool, and their breasts with cotton. In to know that my hearing serves me no better than fact, they do everything in my way, regardless of their my sight. own injury. Fashion Although it be contrary to custom, for in Death In truth, I believe you are my sister; the testi­ France they do not speak to be heard, yet, since we mony of a birth certificate could scarcely make me are sisters, I will speak as you wish, for we can dispense surer of it. But standing still paralyses me, so if you with ceremony between ourselves. I say then that our can, let us run; only you must not creep, because I go common nature and custom is to incessantly renew at a great pace. As we proceed you can tell me what the world. You attack the life of man, and overthrow you want. If you cannot keep up with me, on account all people and nations from beginning to end; whereas of our relationship I promise when I die to bequeath I content myself for the most part with influencing you all my clothes and effects as a New Year’s gift. beards, head-dresses, costumes, furniture, houses, Fashion If we ran a race together, I hardly know which and the like. It is true, I do some things comparable to of us would win. For if you run, I gallop, and standing your supreme action. I pierce ears, lips, and noses, still, which paralyses you, is death to me. So let us and cause them to be torn by the ornaments I suspend run, and we will chat as we go along. from them. I impress men’s skin with hot iron stamps, Death So be it then. Since your mother was mine, you under the pretence of adornment. I compress the heads ought to serve me in some way, and assist me in my of children with tight bandages and other contrivances; business. and make it customary for all men of a country to Fashion I have already done so – more than you

124 125 giacomo leopardi dialogue between fashion and death imagine. Above all, I, who annul and transform other vituperated, are in the present day, thanks to me, customs unceasingly, have nowhere changed the valued and lauded by all men of genius. Such an one custom of death; for this reason it has prevailed from prefers you to life itself, and holds you in such high the beginning of the world until now. esteem that he invokes you, and looks to you as his Death A great miracle forsooth, that you have never greatest hope. But this is not all. I perceived that men done what you could not do! had some vague idea of an after-life, which they called Fashion Why cannot I do it? You show how ignorant immortality. They imagined they lived in the memory you are of the power of Fashion. of their fellows, and this remembrance they sought Death Well, well: time enough to talk of this when you after eagerly. Of course this was in reality mere fancy, introduce the custom of not dying. But at present, I since what could it matter to them when dead, that want you, like a good sister, to aid me in rendering my task they lived in the minds of men? As well might they more easy and expeditious than it has hitherto been. dread contamination in the grave! Yet, fearing lest Fashion I have already mentioned some of my labours this chimera might be prejudicial to you, in seeming which are a source of profit to you. But they are trifling to diminish your honour and reputation, I have in comparison with those of which I will now tell you. abolished the fashion of seeking immortality, and its Little by little, and especially in modern times, I have concession, even when merited. So that now, who- brought into disuse and discredit those exertions and ever dies may assure himself that he is dead altogether, exercises which promote bodily health; and have and that every bit of him goes into the ground, just as substituted numberless others which enfeeble the a little fish is swallowed, bones and all. These important body in a thousand ways, and shorten life. Besides, things my love for you has prompted me to effect. I have introduced customs and manners, which render I have also succeeded in my endeavour to increase existence a thing more dead than alive, whether your power on earth. I am more than ever desirous of regarded from a physical or mental point of view; so continuing this work. Indeed, my object in seeking that this century may be aptly termed the century of you to-day was to make a proposal that for the future death. And whereas formerly you had no other we should not separate, but jointly might scheme and possessions except graves and vaults, where you execute for the furtherance of our respective designs. sowed bones and dust, which are but a barren seed, Death You speak reasonably, and I am willing to do as now you have fine landed properties, and people who you propose. are a sort of freehold possession of yours as soon as they are born, though not then claimed by you. And more, you, who used formerly to be hated and

126 127 CONVERSATIONS ON SLOWNESS

Interviews by Anja Aronowsky Cronberg With portraits stitched by Louise Riley

129 dries van noten

Dries van Noten speaks with care and the next, the next – you don’t have reserve, like someone well aware of time to look back’. Why is it good his privileged position in the fashion not to look back? industry. In Dries’ case this is a Dries It is good to look back, but standing that has been deftly and I don’t want to be nostalgic. I don’t meticulously carved over the years, see the point of dressing up in clothes a feat which, in the eyes of many, from the past; there’s a reason why makes it even more well deserved. fashion changes with the times. For someone who started designing Anja But nostalgia seems to have under his own name when few in become a very important element the business envisioned that fashion in contemporary fashion – why is could come from Antwerp, let alone that do you think? pronounce Belgian brand names, the Dries People think that things were

On Avoiding Traps, Trickery and Other Shenanigans

success and rave reviews that Dries easier or more pleasant in the past, is currently enjoying have been a long but that’s not the case. My team and time coming. Today he is one of the I often have discussions about this. few remaining independent design­ers, It’s interesting because I’m an older an accomplishment that makes his guy now and they are all very young. brand somewhat of an anomaly in When we talk about the 1970s for the contemporary fashion industry. instance, they think about ABBA as Nevertheless, Dries, as the designer one of the icons of the decade. They himself coyly intimates, has to start don’t know that ABBA at the time was thinking about his future. Could considered to be extremely bad taste it be that another of the endur­ing – vulgar and completely unfashionable. bastions of fashion sovereignty ABBA was still wearing platform shoes is about to end up in the hands when everyone else had already moved of a business conglomerate? on. What I mean to say is that it’s not always the best versions of the past Anja In an interview you once said that live on. that ‘The good thing about fashion Anja How do you negotiate the conflict is that you always go ahead, the next, between, as you’ve been known to

131 Conversations on Slowness Dries van Noten say, ‘there being too much fashion important thing to me is that my Dries The research process is incre­ be a pity to just suddenly say, ‘Okay, in the world’ and at the same time, work is creative. I want to put all my dibly important. Every season I start that was it – bye!’ having always to produce more to energy and enthusiasm into colours, afresh – I want us to begin with a Anja Do you worry that your legacy stay in business? fabrics – things like that. I don’t auto­ blank page, even if where we end might be misinterpreted, were you to Dries I wouldn’t say that I’m complet­ matically think about whether it will up is not far from the last collection. leave it in the hands of somebody else? ely at peace with this, but I don’t think sell well or if I’ll earn a lot of money. To feel creatively stimulated I need Dries I can pass on my message to the of my clothes as just more products Anja Is this a strategy that you’ve to go through the whole research people who continue when I’m no in the world. I try to do an honest job deliberately followed throughout process – I couldn’t just pick up longer here, but I can’t control what and make things that have a reason your career? from where we left off last season. happens of course. If I step out, I step for existing other than just making Dries I wouldn’t say it’s ever been That’s why we aren’t yet part of a out and I have to assume responsi- money. I want to make clothes that deliberate. When I started in the mid- big conglomerate. I want to be able bility for my choice. And I still have allow wearers to commun­icate some­ Eighties it became clear pretty quickly to make my own choices. enough things to do in life that, once thing about their personality. Of course that to be a Belgian fashion designer Anja Not yet, you say? that day comes, I won’t always be I also have to compromise and make was seen as an anomaly. The other Dries Well, you never know what’s looking over my shoulder to see basic T-shirts to survive sometimes. designers from Antwerp that I started going to happen in the future… I’m what’s happening with the company. But overall, I put my heart in every­ out with, well, we realised that we fifty-six now, I don’t know what the Anja You often seem to be represented thing I do. I can only hope that this wouldn’t fit easily into the system. situation will be like when I’m sixty- as an outsider to the fashion system: makes my work worthwhile. We had to find our own way. We had five. Maybe I’ll want to stop. But the no advertising, no pre-collections, Anja Do you ever have doubts? no money, so working together made fact is that I’m responsible for my team based in Antwerp, independently Dries Everyday. I never stop quest- us stronger but forming a group was and all the people who have invested owned – do you see yourself as ion­ing what I do. Before a fashion never a marketing idea. It was just in us; all the people that work in produ- an outsider? show I might get nervous and start that people couldn’t pronounce our ction are dependent on me. Maybe Dries No, because it was never some­ thinking, ‘Maybe we should have chosen names so we became ‘The Antwerp when that time comes, the best thing thing I set out to become. Every different music, or maybe those shoes Six’. I didn’t set out to be different to do is to take a partner or to sell the decision we made was based on our aren’t quite right’. But at the same though, it all happened very organically. company. I don’t know. But I do know circumstances at the time, and my time, if you’re perfectly sure of every­ Anja How do you feel you have that I’m not going to do this forever position in the industry is a result of thing you do, then what’s the point? changed as a designer over the years? – I’m not Armani. that. It’s all happened very organically. Anja What is success to you? Dries I hope that getting older and Anja Why is it important to you that I lived in Antwerp when I started, rent Dries Success and happiness are more experienced has made me wiser. the company remains even if you’re is cheap here. We found an incredible intertwined. To me success is not I don’t want to ever fall back on no longer involved? building so why move to Paris? The about scoring, as it is to a lot of formulas – that’s the worst trap for Dries It’s not that it’s important for its same logic applied when we found our people. It’s about feeling good about a fashion designer that’s been in the own sake, but of course it’s nice to shop in Paris. My intention wasn’t to things, it’s about living a good life. business a long time. You know, when know that what I have built will live set myself apart from the well- Anja How do you apply that principle you follow a tried and tested recipe on. It’s not that I’m looking to leave established shopping districts, it’s just to how you do business? that dictates adding a little bit of this, anytime soon, I love what I do. But I that we found a shop that I really loved Dries I try to do business in the same a pinch of that, shaking it and hey have to start thinking of the future, with an amazing view over the Seine. way. Had we wanted to, we could have presto – there’s the new collection. because I don’t have eternal life. We Anja How do you see your own role in had a store in every major city in I want to surprise and I want to stimu­- have to consider our options. In the behemoth that the fashion the world, but that sort of success was late creativity in my team – that to Antwerp we have over a hundred industry today has become? never for me. When we open a store me is very important. people working for us and in India Dries I don’t know. We’re not the only I want it to be in a nice location, I want Anja How do you ensure that you there’s a few thousand people just ones who work in a different way. the staff to be people I like. The most don’t fall into the trap? working on our embroidery. It would There are others. But my decision not

Vestoj On Slowness 133 Conversations on Slowness Dries van Noten to make pre-collections like all the for many other brands. When pre- Anja Have you found any disadvan­ Would it be fair to say that, as a de- major brands do for example, is based collections started to become tages at all with working in this way? signer who is very well established on the fact that we wouldn’t have the important, we felt the pressure to Dries The only thing that’s difficult for and well respected by now, certain time to make it as well as our main make them too of course. But we us is that having only two major allowances are made for you? collection. My team is not big enough. stuck it out, and today buyers seem collections a year means that we can Dries You have a point, but the fact Also, I want to see every yarn, every grateful that we don’t make any. They only deliver one image per season. is that my collections sell well. I don’t paillette, every button – every element spend so much time running around The shop-in-shops at department want to come across as a commercial of every collection. That, to me, is the the world buying new collections that stores will only get one direction to designer, but I am a designer concerned fun part. I don’t like meetings; I like they complain about not knowing work with from us, whereas a lot of with creating garments for men and to be hands-on in the creation. But which season is which anymore. the major brands now do as many as women that sell. Other designers are really, we just do the best we can with I think they appreciate a little time off. nine or ten collections a year, which concerned with creating an image so what we have. Anja I’m surprised to hear you say allows them to deliver new products that they can sell accessories or Anja Are there parts of the fashion that. I’ve spoken to so many designers along with a new image every month. perfume. In most companies, acces- in­dustry that you find hard to identify who seem to feel that making pre- We instead have to rely on good sories, shoes and bags make up with? collections is an absolute requirement merchandising so that our clients 60–70% of sales – for us it’s only 7%, Dries Actually, I think that the good these days. How can you survive will notice new things whenever they the other 93% is clothing. thing about the fashion industry today without it when so many others come into the stores. Anja You have been stressing the is that it allows for a lot of different seem to think they can’t? Anja This pace that you’re describing importance of designing garments alternatives. In the Eighties and Dries Well, for most designers the pre- owes a lot to fast fashion, doesn’t it? to wear, rather than garments for Nineties there was just one way. In collection is their commercial It’s as if the fast turn-around that show, but how do you keep this the late 1990s when the big groups collection – it’s what they sell. Then customers have come to expect from balance in an environment that started buying up independent they make a ‘fashion show collection’ the stores on the high street, has also now puts so much emphasis on the designers, it looked for a while as that is useful in terms of image and ended up completely altering the way photogenic nature of clothes? if that was the future – we all had to gets them attention in the press. The high fashion brands work. Dries I have had to start thinking become part of a big conglomerate. equation, in terms of sales, is usually Dries That’s true. You have to re- about what garments look good We also considered it seriously for 75% pre-collection and 25% fashion member that in the past sell-through viewed on an iPod or smartphone. a while. But we didn’t make that leap, show collection. The fashion show at department stores was assessed The first three looks have to be it wasn’t for us – or not yet anyway. collection for most designers arrives every six months; now it’s done every intriguing enough to make people Instead we just kept working and with late in the sales season, but we do month. Department stores look at want to see the rest. You can’t tell time people have come to respect that. it differently. We invite buyers to see a designer’s monthly turnover per the whole story at once. Today, difference is celebrated. It’s us in Antwerp one month before we square foot now, so of course if you Anja On a slightly different note, the same with fashion itself. You show it to press in Paris. This means always deliver new products you’ll what’s important to you in terms of can be dressed in Versace or in Yohji that we can get early orders, which have a much more even sell-through. ideology and design ethics? Yamamoto and be equally fashionable. in turn helps us when we place fabric A brand like ours by contrast has Dries The fashion industry is full of tricks There’s a lot more space for individu- orders with our suppliers. If a fabric a very high turnover for the first three about how to create desirability and make ality today. won’t arrive on time, we can let our months after a new collection arrives things more commercial. You can find it Anja How do you feel about the pace buyers know and they can choose in stores, but that will be followed by in how you merchandise a collection, how of the fashion system – is there any something else instead. All in all, two months of slow sales. you link garments or how you connect way to circumvent it? this means that we can deliver a big Anja But seeing as you’ve been in an element that sold well one season to Dries I’m lucky in that it doesn’t part of our collection nearly at the business for over three decades by items the following season. I try to avoid affect me too much. I get by without same time when others deliver now you’ve also had a chance to build all that. I want my work to be honest and the pre-collections that are so essential their pre-collections. long-lasting relationships with buyers. straightforward – I don’t like tricks. 2

Vestoj On Slowness 135 Hussein Chalayan

Hussein Chalayan became known as where do storytellers fit into a world a ‘conceptual designer’ in the 1990s that premiers status over indepen- and it’s been bugging him ever since. dence and financial might over Rather than getting attention for his creative fearlessness? more extraordinary designs (there have been dresses made of giant Hussein It’s interesting that we’re plastic bubbles, a table turning into supposed to talk about ‘slowness’. a skirt, LED lights and lasers There’s a real nervousness in this incorporated into garments as well industry – designers think that they as black chadors either covering or have to reinvent themselves every exposing the naked bodies of his catwalk show. I’ve been a fashion models), he would like the focus to designer for over twenty years now be on his wearable clothes, the stuff and I find that attitude very tiring.

On Being Painted into a Corner and Getting Stuck

that people actually buy. But shifting It also means that the designer is perceptions is hard to do. Especially always a bit too far advanced for their considering that the fashion press client, which isn’t really a good thing. loves a good spectacle. For Hussein What tends to happen is that people this has meant that he has spent can’t relate to what you do, and you years consulting and designing for lose out. others, and occasionally selling his Anja Do you feel that you have lost out? work as art to fund his fashion Hussein Well, I always wanted my collections. He has made films rather shows to be a cultural experience for than catwalk shows, and invited the audience, but what ended up buyers to come and look at his happening is that newspapers put, tailoring up close. But still he is say, my bubble dress on the front struggling. Department stores are page to sell more papers, and it reluctant to stock his work, and would make people think that I was speciality stores rarely order enough an ‘artist’, and not interested in to keep a designer in business. making wearable clothes. But actually Hussein Chalayan describes himself in the same collection I’d have long as ‘a storyteller with clothes’, but tailored coats, and the bubble dress

137 Conversations on Slowness Hussein Chalayan without the bubbles and those to think that it was okay to remain Hussein It’s a difficult position to be The only reason I started sharing my garments never got any attention. exclusive, to be a designer’s designer in; I call it ‘the middle child syn- creative process with the press was Anja Do you still feel that this is the and perceived as ‘conceptual’. Today drome’. I don’t have the buzz of being because they bloody asked me so case, considering how fast information I feel differently. I’d like my work a young designer anymore, nor do they could have something to write is now shared on social media and to reach more people, but it doesn’t I have the power that comes with about. If they think my process is too websites like Style.com? because I’m seen as ‘too creative’ being part of a big conglomerate. conceptual they can just appreciate Hussein It’s true that with the advent or ‘too conceptual’. All those stupid I’m in-between. I often wonder who’s the clothes. The process and the of digital media people can see my words; I find it very limiting. really in charge of the great machine influences are there to help me collection before I’ve even packed my Anja Why is it important for you that determines what will be trendy create; the final result is what the bags to come back home from Paris. to reach more people? next season, or who’s a hot designer customer will wear. That’s what On the one hand, this is great because Hussein Well, to be able to do what and who’s not. I find that whole part really matters. everyone can see my work and I don’t I really want to do I have to have of this business very peculiar. At the Anja It’s as if you’ve been painted into need to rely on what the papers a bigger business. I want to be able same time, being at this stage in a corner and now you’re stuck. decide to publish in order to sell to experiment more, to invest more my career, I understand better than Hussein Maybe the mistake I made more copies. But on the other hand, in techniques and fabrics. Today, ever who actually buys my clothes. was that I should have spoken less the high street can also see what I do. we have an okay business – it’s fine If people really like what you do, they about the collections and let the press I’m effectively giving my ideas away – but I think it could be much better. don’t care whether they read about and buyers enjoy the garments for free to other designers. The Anja Many of the designers I’ve you on Style.com. instead – you know, look at them problem is that they can often do spoken to mention that having their Anja You’ve mentioned a few times properly, touch them, try them on. better versions of those ideas than own store is an important step for now that you used to feel flattered For two seasons I experimented with I can, because they have the funds. a brand. You still don’t have one. when the press called you a ‘con- that approach actually. I didn’t do That’s life though; you have to take What would opening a store mean ceptual’ designer, but that you now a catwalk show; I did a film instead the shit with the good, you know. for your business? feel boxed in by the term. and had the clothes in the showroom. Anja Am I right in assuming that Hussein If you don’t have your own Hussein Now I find it annoying. And press and buyers came and you’re not a proponent of ‘democratic store you rely on established conduits Anja Could it be that the way the touched the clothes. Those two fashion’, or the idea that fast fashion to reach the end consumer – buyers, press defined you as a young designer seasons made a big difference I think. is progressive design available at an reporters, stylists and so on. These was to your favour in that it helped The people who came could see all affordable price? people are fickle; they might like you mark you out, and contributed to the the work that goes into each indi- Hussein What happens today when one season and not the next. If, on the huge interest you’ve received from vidual garment. For all those who high street retailers do ‘democratic other hand, you have your own space museums and the art world in insist on pigeonholing me as this fashion’ is that work like mine gets you don’t need to depend on anyone. general? And that the same label ‘conceptual’ designer, it’s things like filtered. It’s true that it allows people It’s hard to rely on press and buyers is today holding you back and that that can make a difference. who like designer clothing to buy as filters for what you do, because if making consumers think that your You know, this word conceptual – simulations for a fraction of the price, they decide that they don’t like you work is ‘too arty’ or difficult? I hate it now. which is good I guess, but it also one season… then what do you do? Hussein I don’t believe in reducing Anja There are a handful of other means that I, and others like me, Anja With that in mind, and con- a designer to any one thing. Cate- ‘conceptual’ designers who seem to basically end up being designers for sidering that the fashion press is gorising someone as ‘conceptual’ or be using the label to their advantage other designers. largely dedicated to advertisers today, ‘arty’ is just lazy and reductive. In – Comme des Garçons perhaps being Anja What do you mean? how does someone in your position fact, while the press was talking about the most notable example. Why do Hussein My work is admired by the ensure that the press continues giving me as ‘conceptual’ I was actually you think it works for them? industry but it doesn’t reach the end you the attention you need to appeal spending a lot of time making sure Hussein When they started the consumer. Early in my career I used to consumers? my sleeves and collars were perfect. industry was quite different. They’ve

Vestoj On Slowness 139 Conversations on Slowness Hussein Chalayan been around a long time now, and we first thought were rubbish. Living have to run businesses; those guys there is someone else more important with time they’ve become legends. in the age of consumerism means run themselves. You can quote me around the corner? I’ve met a lot They also have an amazing business that the market needs us to never on that. I don’t think consumers know of people like that, people whose model. They show a very directional stop consuming. Like you say, big how designers really work. They think eyes are constantly wandering. So collection on the catwalk and then companies have to keep selling, or it’s glamorous. Actually our lives are many people in fashion are afraid of have a huge amount of sub-lines and they’ll go out of business. We talked difficult. A lot of people give up when missing out. collaborations with which they can about ‘democratic fashion’ before – they realise how difficult it is. Anja Considering the abundance of reach a great variety of clients. They it’s a buzzword now. But is con- Anja Which is why longevity is so… designers on the market today, what have constructed a system where sumerism democratic? I don’t think Hussein Important? does it take to stand out? they can afford to do that. I can’t. I so. It’s made to look like it is, but Anja Noteworthy. Hussein Fashion is about loving what have one major collection, and I have it isn’t. The system exists to make Hussein Yes, and it’s also really im- you used to hate and hating what you to find a way to reach all my clients wealthy people ever wealthier. portant to know who you are as a used to love. It constantly changes. through it. This collection has to be Anja The influence of big business in designer. I’m lucky enough to know I think that the people who do well in both monumental and wearable at the fashion industry seems to have my style by now. I’m a compositional fashion are the ones with really strong the same time, which is no easy feat. helped cement fashion as the perhaps designer. opinions. People with strong opinions Anja You’ve said in the past that most important part of pop culture Anja What does that mean? are believable, regardless of whether fashion now is not about creating today. You mentioned earlier how Hussein It means that I draw compo- they’re right or wrong. something new – why has this changed? your most eccentric designs have sitions. I have rules; my methods and Anja I see what you mean – especially Hussein There is so much choice on routinely been placed on the front ways of working are quite developed considering that fashion people are the market today, so many designers pages of newspapers in order to sell by now. I’d rather do what I know often accused of being turncoats. and so many different styles. It’s all more copies, and we all know how well than try and change all the time. Hussein When you actually come a bit diluted. I don’t think there is important celebrity has become When I was younger, I explored a lot across someone that does have an any one style or trend that dominates to fashion… and each collection ended up looking opinion, they’re respected – even if Hussein anymore. Today what’s making We’re suffering from a design quite different. In retrospect, I think it’s a crap opinion. 2 people look the same is plastic overdose right now. Being a designer it confused my buyers. They must surgery, not clothing. has become fashionable. I don’t know have been wondering what to expect Anja When you started out as a any other business where a rich man’s from me now. designer in the early 1990s, the age wife can employ a team to work for Anja We talked earlier about the of the conglomerate wasn’t yet fully her and declare that she’s a designer speed of information sharing on the developed. Today being part of one is with no prior training. It cheapens internet. How do you feel that this arguably how we define success for our industry. Everyone wants to has affected the way we work? a designer. New products need to be a designer today, whereas I’m Hussein The abundance of information be generated constantly to ensure thinking, ‘Do you even know what that we have today lowers the appre- that the big companies can keep it takes?’ Think about it. You have to ciation of it. We don’t have time to growing, and that their shareholders have something different to say, you stop and read anymore. Everything remain happy. What’s your feeling have to have a market. Designers has to be quick now. Fashion attracts about this state of affairs? have to run a business; we have a lot of really insecure people. A lot Hussein Consumers today are coerced offices and employees. Stylists can of people in the industry suffer from to buy. We get things banged on our work from their house and charge what I call ‘BBD’ – Bigger Better Deal. heads so many times via all sorts of a load of money. Photographers work You know when you’re at a party, media outlets that we end up getting from their computers when they’re talking to someone and they’re used to, and then liking, things that not shooting in the studio. Designers looking over your shoulder to see if

Vestoj On Slowness 141 margaret howell

Margaret Howell comes across as very Margaret Howell and her customers measured and thoughtful, a little coy do on a regular basis, either in even. She answers questions carefully actuality or in their imaginations. and at times meanders slightly off the topic, lost in thought, before remem- Anja I read somewhere that you bering that there is a question to describe yourself as a ‘maker- answer and a journalist to please. designer’, rather than a ‘fashion It isn’t hard to see how Margaret designer’. Why do you make this Howell, the woman, has given birth distinction? to Margaret Howell, the brand. Her Margaret Well, I’ve always considered practical and evocative pieces, myself to be on the edge of fashion. steeped in tradition, have appealed to When I started I was always making

On Becoming Less Self-Conscious, Awkward and Gauche

customers since she opened her first things. I remember finding a shirt London shop in 1977. In the 1980s in a jumble sale that I cherished the Japanese went mad for her pure for a long time; it was in a beautiful aesthetic, full of nostalgia for a British- material and so well made. I’ve always ness long gone, and the company has found things that are very well made since grown to occupy a position as inspiring. It’s in my family I think – one of the most stalwart fashion both my parents and grandparents brands in the UK. Margaret herself loved antique furniture. My mother describes her clothes as ‘what you always used to make things for my wear when you walk on an empty sisters and me, and we were all given beach’. Walking, in fact, is an im- sewing machines for our twenty-first portant theme for both the woman birthdays. and the brand, as is nature. An early Anja When you talk about yourself incarnation of the Margaret Howell as being ‘on the edge of fashion’, what label had two walkers on it, taken do you mean exactly? from a 1930s railway catalogue, and Margaret If you go to fashion college, today you can picture that walking you’re taught to work in a very specific in the country is something that both way, with flat drawings, themes and

143 Conversations on Slowness Margaret Howell whole collections that go together. Anja Why was it so important to you I used to really enjoy my school uni- Margaret For a long time we didn’t I’m not that sort of designer. I design a that it shouldn’t look new? form, with the white shirt, the tie and do shows actually, but doing one does piece of clothing because I get an idea Margaret Well, I thought that if my the V-neck sweater. I used to like have its advantages. The shows are for about an old trench coat for instance, customers were anything like me, going to the school department at the press really, and we need press. or I see a fabric I like, and I want to they would feel more self-conscious John Lewis to pick out my uniform or If you get the right sympathetic make that. These days, the company putting a new piece of clothing on my sports clothes. I’ve always enjoyed stylist, they can suggest things that being what it is, I’m actually overseeing than one that was worn in. clothes designed for a purpose. we haven’t thought of, and that keeps designers who can design collections, Anja Is the notion of ‘armchair nos- Anja You talk about yourself as an things lively and good. On the other but for me personally it’s much more talgia’ something that you consider – outsider to the fashion system, but hand, I like doing photo campaigns about having a concept and thinking the idea that we all share a collective what does ‘fashion’ represent to you? though I’m not very comfortable with about individual garments. The way imagined nostalgia that informs our Margaret Fashion, to me, is con- the high fashion photographers of I approach design is through a personal tastes in the present, but that we nected with the urban life; it’s about the moment who arrive with their take on something. have no firsthand experience of? being seen to be fashionable. There big entourages. The cost of it all Anja What do you think the current Margaret I’ve certainly noticed how are many elements of fashion that baffles me. focus on heritage, craftsmanship and customers in our shops are always I’ve never quite felt comfortable with Anja How do you feel you have changed slow fashion is all about? drawn to herringbone and other very – the fashion show for instance. All as a designer over the years? Margaret I think there’s a tremen- traditional fabrics, so there must be the people connected with the shows, Margaret I’ve become more self- dous excess of clothing in the world. something to it. When I was beginning the producers, the hair and make-up confident over time, and less awkward If I weren’t in this business, I’d as a designer, I’d spend a lot of time at people – I don’t feel at home in that or gauche. I was very self-conscious probably look for clothes in charity the cinema watching old black and world really. I know how easy it is to when I started. Over the years, as the shops. In my work, I’ve always been white films, or pouring over photo- make clothes look good on models but company has grown, I’ve also been drawn to British heritage: Harris journalism books. I’d see someone at the end of the day we have to make able to take on a slightly different Tweed, linen, Irish tweeds, worsteds, in the crowd wearing something them look good on regular people. role. Today I can focus more on doing tailoring, Mackintosh trenches. All interesting and that would spark me off. Very often the stylist wants to put the small exhibitions or on promoting those things were part of my child- Anja Do you have a specific garment models in high heels for example, but other forms of British design through hood. They’re also all connected that you have a particularly strong high heels make the model walk in our stores. I enjoy that very much. with nature and with walking in the emotional connection with? Can you a very different way. It doesn’t convey Anja What about your clientele, do countryside, which I love. tell me about its provenance? our spirit. you think that they have changed in Anja Is nostalgia important to you? Margaret There are so many. I re- Anja Do you find that being at odds any significant way since you started? Margaret I could talk all day about member my father in his white shirt with the fashion industry has been to Margaret Not really, there have nostalgia! When I started I drew with the sleeves rolled up, mucking your advantage or disadvantage over always been people comfortable with very much on things from the past. about in the garden. It’s funny: I never the years? knowing, rather than showing, the I remember my father’s Burberry think of him in his suit, coming back Margaret It’s difficult because I under- quality of their clothes. When raincoat, hanging faded and soft on from work. I always think of him in stand that I have to compromise at I started, I was interested in men’s a nail in our garage – he must have the garden, in work clothes, because times. As a designer you have to clothes above all. To me, wearing put it there after walking in the that’s what we used to love doing change a look to keep the press trousers rather than skirts made garden. Years later, I made a similar together. I suppose the things you are interested. We’ve been known to put sense because of my active lifestyle. raincoat with raglan sleeves, over- drawn to as an adult are the things a small heel on a sandal at times, I always wanted my clothes to be sized and soft, just like his. It was that gave you pleasure as a child. but it’s not really me. comfortable – that seemed the most the first raincoat I ever made, and Some people would never wear grey Anja Seeing as you’re not quite com- equal and liberated approach for a I remember struggling to make it flannel skirts for instance; it reminds fortable with the fashion show format, woman designer making clothes for look like it wasn’t new. them of a school uniform they hated. why do you keep doing them? other women.

Vestoj On Slowness 145 Conversations on Slowness Margaret Howell

Anja Fashion today seems to have Margaret Well, I don’t own the Margaret The past is very important: honestly, every time Richard says, moved from the realm of clothes company anymore; Sam grew it so it helps form us. For me, I think it’s ‘We’ve got a new lovely shop’ my you wear in your actual life to be- much that a publicly listed company because I enjoyed growing up; I felt heart sinks a little. For me it can be coming the by-product of the image in Japan took over in 1990. As for it happy and secure. And certain values quite a headache. I have faith in him, of a brand… lasting beyond my involvement or that I grew up with after the war have and I accept that we need to grow, but Margaret Yes, I have a hard time lifetime, the importance of that is stayed with me. Mending things, re- I’m glad I’m not in that driving seat. understanding fashion designers like something that Sam made me aware specting and looking after things, not My role is to come up with ideas. 2 John Galliano or Vivienne Westwood of. He always used to talk about the being wasteful – it’s all ingrained in – what they make is akin to theatrical responsibility he felt towards his me. The way we waste things today, costume. I’m not really into the idea employees, and it’s had an effect on I find it just incredible. of making different clothes for the me too. If I just drop dead one day, Anja We live in a culture of abundance catwalk and the store. I just think, I’d like to leave as much information now. We all feel like we should have ‘What’s the point?’ I’m a realist behind as possible. That’s why we’re lots of everything: clothes, books, I guess. I’m boring. [Laughs] working on the archives now. food, electronic objects and other Anja In a way, considering the focus Anja Now that the company has trinkets… on rapid change and the dominance grown from the small concern it once Margaret Yes, it was so different of glamour in fashion today, it’s was to one where you’re no longer when I was growing up. And when almost surprising that a company the majority owner, are there any I had my own daughter, I remember like yours cannot just survive, moments that have been particularly being given second-hand clothes and but thrive. hard for you? a pram and things like that. I was Margaret But there have always been Margaret Yes, there was a moment like, ‘Yes please!’ But now that my companies like ours – think of Jaeger. that was difficult for me after daughter is grown up and has her They made good quality, wearable the Japanese bought the company own children, she wants to buy every- clothes. Aren’t we a little like a and Richard Craig came on as thing new. younger version of them? I know that the managing director. We were Anja Maybe with my generation, we Jaeger stagnated at some point, and much more financially secure buy new things just because we can. I know I’m jolly lucky to have the and could start hiring more people. Because it’s out there and we can business partners I’ve had. A lot of I’ve never had a problem with young afford it, and because it’s somehow our early success has been up to the designers straight out of college, expected of us. But that culture of chap who started importing the brand who work alongside me and learn abundance facilitates your company to Japan in the 1980s. Sam Sugure as they go along. But hiring a too surely? Ultimately if people didn’t was only a few years older than me womanswear designer to take buy a lot of new things all the time when we started working together, over the collection was hard for you’d go out of business. So how do and we just always got on. He grew me. I used to do every-thing you you square up your own reluctance the company slowly but surely in know, almost down to drawing the towards profusion with the needs of Japan, and the rest sort of followed. lines on the pattern. Now I had your business? Anja You’ve been talking about the to start letting go and trusting Margaret I think the merchandisers importance of things that last. Do other people. That was a little don’t like me very much! I don’t like you feel the same way about your bit tough. colours and I always want to have less company? Would you like it to carry Anja You’ve talked a lot about your of everything on display. I’m not at on the day that you’re no longer childhood during our time together. all commercial. Or, I say that, but… involved? Why is the past so important to you? I do know what people will like. But

Vestoj On Slowness 147 Christophe Lemaire

In a business where designers often sound design ideology and solid become figureheads for large corpo- company ethics, they are moving rations, to be rolled out when a forward, one step at a time. perfume or handbag needs promoting, Christophe Lemaire is an unusually Anja Many people complain about the outspoken exception to the rule. detrimental effects that the speeded- Another exception to the unwritten up pace of contemporary fashion has fashion rules is the time that he gives on creativity. Is that something you’ve to everything he does. Even inter- noticed too? views. Over several days, many hours Christophe Yes, the speed of the and plenty of coffee Christophe talked business now is crazy. I don’t agree candidly and convincingly about with it. You need time to create and anxiety in the fashion industry, the to think, but today designers have to

On Aiming for the Ideal While Rooting for Reality

ever-accelerating pace of the fashion make a new collection every three schedule and the hypocrisy of big months. You don’t have a choice. Or fashion corporations. Christophe I don’t in any case. Pre-collections himself, after a decade at Lacoste have become hugely important – if and the last four years at Hermès, you want to increase sales, you need is today focusing on his own to offer products as early in the company, which he runs with Sarah- season as possible. Linh Tran, his girlfriend and overall Anja How do you think that the tempo sounding board in work and life. affects those who work in the Together they are navigating the industry? perhaps riskiest moment for a Christophe There is so much anxiety growing fashion brand – the one in this business. People are anxious when all eyes are on you and those all the time. Every few months, you who purport themselves to be ‘in have to prove that you’re still at the the know’ speak of you as the best top of your game. The competition thing since sliced bread. With and the time pressure can be over- fastidiousness and tenacity, while whelming at times. It’s very hard to never forgetting the importance of achieve something you’re completely

149 Conversations on Slowness Christophe Lemaire satisfied with in the limited time Christophe Yes of course. Our de- buyers seem very susceptible to your Christophe I’m interested in how we have now. And at the same time, velopment manager tells us that if vision of discreet sophistication and clothes are worn in everyday life by this is an industry full of sensitive, we want to reach the next level in everyday elegance. Is this something regular people. Clothing is so very creative people who are always our own growth, we’ll have to start you’ve picked up on also? intimate; it’s about how we want to be doubting what they do. I think this showing the womenswear autumn/ Christophe I’m very aware that this seen. Fashion is a projection of an is one of the reasons why fashion winter collection in January instead is our moment. Fashion now is about ideal, but to me it’s also tied up with people sometimes behave in of March. The buyers all come to minimalism, a subtle silhouette and ideology. It should be about liberating ridiculous ways. We overreact and Paris in January with their budgets everyday garments. What we do fits a woman or a man from the con- behave badly. I catch myself doing now. If you wait to show the col- the trend. But I also know that the straints of untenable ideals. Other- the same at times. lection until after the fashion show only thing you can count on in fashion wise being a designer is just about Anja What do you think has prompted in March, it’s too late – the big is that it changes. So I see this as the playing with dolls. the industry to accelerate in this way? budgets have been spent. Buyers moment for us to strengthen our Anja What exactly is important to you Christophe It’s something that’s been prioritise brands that they know will team, our communication and our in terms of design ideology? happening for the past ten, fifteen deliver early. So of course this shift business. We need to become well Christophe To me there is something years. Some powerful company must has deep consequences for our way established enough as a company so political in everything. It baffles me have realised that the earlier they of working, for how our team is that when the tide changes we’ll be that in fashion we seem to think that could deliver to stores, the more they organised, let alone for my peace strong enough to carry on. our work is disconnected from politics, would sell. If you deliver your col- of mind. But it’s just the way the Anja The dichotomy between or that it’s pretentious to talk about lection in March, as we used to, you industry works now; we all have creativity and business is one that’s fashion as something ideological. The have two months to sell it before the to adapt to survive. very keenly felt in the fashion industry. work we do at Lemaire is, in its own sales start – if you deliver in January Anja Do you think that this means How do you balance your need for humble way, very political. We have you have twice as long. Customers that a permanent change for the creative expression as a designer with a very specific point of view about have become used to buying summer fashion seasons is under way? the knowledge that you’re also a dressing. We communicate so much clothes in January now, so the smaller Christophe Yes, I think eventually business leader who has to always about ourselves, or about how we companies have had to follow suit to what will happen is that the fashion be aware of the bottom line? want to be seen, by what we wear. keep up. At Hermès I would be show schedules will shift. They’ll have Christophe If you want to endure as So of course it’s political. choosing fabrics for the winter to happen earlier to accommodate the a designer today you have to be Anja Do you think that fashion has collection in June/July. In September change in buying. Right now, we’re business savvy. But I’m also aware become more or less political since I would prepare the fashion show stuck in between the old and the new that when fashion becomes all about you started? for spring/summer and at the same rhythm. Fashion is a global business business, about profits, it loses the Christophe It seems to me that time present research, design ideas now, and there are so many brands ability it has to really affect change. fashion is much more reactionary and sketches for the winter collection, and markets that operate on different It’s a bit sad but the designers that today than when I started out in which would be shown to buyers seasons. As a designer you have to become famous are the ones who the early 1990s. If you read fashion in early December. In May we would make sure that you show some wool play ball and know not to challenge magazines, they seem to be condi- be delivering the winter collection in the summer season and lighter the system too much. When it comes tioning women to become less to stores. You’d be surprised if you fabrics in the winter. It’s a bit chaotic to my own work, I’m an idealist independent, more stupid. Follow knew how many clients want to now because we have to accom- really. I’m interested in history, I’m the crowd; don’t think for yourself. buy fur in May. The wealthy want modate two different timings interested in politics; what drives It’s fascinating really. So many women to show that they’re first with simultaneously. me is how to create better conditions seem to think that they have to run everything. Anja On a slightly different note, of life. to the sales as soon as they start, Anja Has this affected the way you you’ve received rave reviews these Anja When you say ‘better’, what do and that their worth is measured in work at Lemaire too? last few seasons, and both critics and you mean? the latest shoe or handbag.

Vestoj On Slowness 151 Conversations on Slowness Christophe Lemaire

Anja You talked earlier about how the and the media. The involvement and suitcases, like servants, as if they all the time, but it’s about having pace of the industry affects designers, influence of the PR or agent is hugely were on their way to board the Orient the right expectations and playing to but is there anything that can be done important now. Having a PR in the Express. But what does this say about everybody’s strengths. In a capitalist to circumvent it? room with you when you do inter- the woman of today? Fashion has to culture, an enterprise is a little Christophe I don’t know if you can views is becoming very common, and say something about life today, about society. I see it like that. Of course, circumvent it but you can find a way often a journalist has to kowtow so what a modern woman’s life is like. I’m the leader; this is my project. of dealing with it. When I started much to a fashion brand leading up When I saw that Louis Vuitton show, But I could never do it alone. I wasn’t confident enough to be at to the interview moment that when what I saw was a big circus and a Anja The politics of design has been odds with the fashion world. I felt you finally get access to a designer, lot of money being spent. There was a recurring theme during our I had to reinvent myself with every you’ve become neutered before you nothing progressive about what a conversation, and I’m getting the collection, which was very stressful. even start. Considering your ex- woman should be today. And still, sense that you’re constantly It was only when I understood that perience working both for major the reviews were all predictably good. oscillating between needing to fit the problem wasn’t actually the pace fashion businesses and for yourself, Anja What’s your opinion on how in for survival, and wanting to rebel itself, but that I’d bought into the idea what’s your take on this? women are represented in contem- against the system. of having to renew myself every six Christophe At Hermès, they would porary fashion? Christophe I try to be radical in my months, that I reconciled with the always place a PR in the room with Christophe Fashion today propagates own quiet way. I want to go to the fashion system. I realised that I could me when I was being interviewed. the wrong idea of femininity or what source of what I think is the problem actually rework the same garments If I said something even slightly being sexy is about. Women are told in fashion today and look for long- season after season – that was a very divisive, they would break in and say, that being sexy is about showing off lasting and profound solutions. That liberating moment actually. ‘Oh Christophe, maybe you shouldn’t your body. But what about looking doesn’t mean destroying and Anja You seem to have found an say that – it’s a little bit controversial’. smart? replacing everything – that never interesting way over the years of I realise that an interview is a promo- Anja You’ve talked in the past about works. It would be pretentious and balancing your own brand with, at tional exercise most of the time now. the importance of having a partner in conceited to think that I could change times, being a designer for hire at But I wish it wouldn’t have to be at fashion, as you now have Sarah-Linh, the system. The system is what it is. major fashion houses. What are the the expense of the actual opinions or and also of working as a team. Why is If you want to survive, you have to advantages or disadvantages of ideology of a designer. it important to emphasise fashion as deal with it. I have employees that working like this? Anja What do you mean? a team effort? depend on me. I’m not an artist. I’m Christophe Well, the luxury of having Christophe I’m incredibly frustrated Christophe How you work together a manager; I can’t take risks that your own brand means that you de- by how enormously powerful fashion says a lot about the ethics you have jeopardise the livelihood of those who cide who to listen to. I know firsthand conglomerates have become. I’ve seen as a company. I used to play hockey depend on me. But having said that, how hard it can be to work for a big how it affects the level of honesty and for a long time; I play soccer. I like I believe in reform. I believe in real corporation: the hypocrisy, the fierce- freedom in what critics write. For team sports. A team has to have very democracy. I very much admire the ness of big business – everything that instance, everybody knows that you strong ethics. When you succeed, you French Socialist leader Jean Jaurès. is contrary to my own values. can’t say a word against LVMH today. share the glory, and when you fail, it’s As he said, one must ‘aller à l’idéal et Knowing that through my work I remember one of the last shows the responsibility of the whole team comprendre le réel’. Aim for the ideal, I can actually provide an alternative Marc Jacobs did for Louis Vuitton, to correct the flaws. In work, I try to but be aware of reality. Small, subtle to what I don’t like about the fashion for autumn/winter 2012, where he apply the same logic. I want everyone changes can become very important system has always motivated me showed women dressed all in black I work with to feel that we’re building over time. 2 to keep going. with huge hats, in early twentieth something together that’s bigger than Anja As a journalist I’ve noticed how century style. They could barely any one of us, and that depends on us the corporate influence has changed move. There were men on the all. It’s about creating team energy. the relationship between a designer catwalk carrying the models’ That doesn’t mean we have to be nice

Vestoj On Slowness 153 Nigel Cabourn

Spending time with Nigel Cabourn is a juniors – were struggling to keep up. little like being carried along by a minor The last we saw of Nigel he was tornado. He talks a mile a minute, makes marching down Rue de Rivoli, camo friends with just about everybody, jacket flapping in the wind, an increas- and is, by his own admission, ‘like ingly smaller dot on the horizon… the fucking Pied Piper’. Though we some­times had to fight for attention Anja You’ve had a real upswing recently with various photo­graphers, textile in terms of popularity – why is that do manufacturers, waiters, taxi drivers, you think? receptionists and countless young and Nigel I’ve had plenty of ups and pretty girls, each and everyone a new downs but I’ve had my own brand friend of Nigel’s, the appeal isn’t hard forty-three years now. There aren’t to see. Straight talking and twinkly- many people around who can say that

On Travelling the World and Telling Stories Interview conducted together with David Myron

eyed, Nigel ‘goes around the world today. It took me sixty-three years to talking to people’, building his niche figure it all out so I ain’t that fucking empire along the way. In business for smart. I’m sixty-five now and I started over forty years now, he has seen the to get really popular when I was about industry change and change again. sixty. I was like, ‘Why am I so popular His faithful inter­pretations of iconic all of a sudden?’ And I realised that military and mountaineering garments it’s because I’m so approachable. have made him a bit of a celebrity in I’ve got plenty of personality, plenty Japan, and he now spends much of to say for myself and I love what I do. his time on the road, talking up a I travel around the world and a lot of storm to loyal followers and new people know who I am. A lot of people aficionados alike. You might think photograph me. All these things are that all this travelling would take its part of the brand. At least my brand toll on a man past his retirement age. has got a character to it. I look like You’d be wrong. Our own evening what I am. A twat. [Laughs] ended with Nigel offering to walk us Anja Your work today is completely home, only to set a pace so fast based on vintage clothing. When did and furious that we – forty years his you first start working with vintage?

155 Conversations on Slowness Nigel Cabourn

Nigel Well, my first love was pop tape. Paul gave it to me and it made me the 1910s is Robert Falcon Scott represent me. I was one of the first music. English pop music between me a fortune. Once I discovered that and the British Antarctic Expedition, European designers in Japan. Margaret 1967–1971 was fucking brilliant! button and tape, I did a whole range the 1920s are about George Mallory’s Howell was there before me, in about I was a fashion student then and of similar pieces in 1979 – I was the Mount Everest expeditions, the 1950s 1979, but she’s a bit older than me everybody was into flower power. first one to do that. is Sir Edmund Hillary ascending – thank-fucking-god. Anyway, I arrived I only went to fashion college for Anja What were your clothes like Everest. I always start with a character. the year after. We had the same partner the birds you know. I met this kid before you discovered vintage? I even did a collection based on my then, Sam Sugure – he’s seventy-one when I was about seventeen and he Nigel When I first started all I did was dad once – he was in Burma during now. The Japanese love British style told me, ‘You’ve got to go to this clothes inspired by pop music, but in World War II you know. and they love vintage. If everywhere college, it’s full of fucking birds!’ It’s the mid-Seventies I lost my way a bit. David Do you ever think of who act­ were like Japan I’d be a multi-millionaire true! But pretty soon I realised When I discovered the vintage I got ually designed those vintage garments? by now. I wanted to design menswear, which myself fucking up to speed again and Nigel That’s a good point. Mountain­ David Your brand seems to fit very was unheard of in Newcastle then. I never looked back. eering garments would, for example, well with the trend in menswear that’s Everybody else did either womens­ Anja What do you mean you ‘lost usually have been designed by some­ been around for the past few years: wear or children’s wear. And I wasn’t your way’? one on the expedition. Clothes were heritage brands, made in Europe, gay like most other male designers. Nigel Well, I was showing in Paris often passed down too. But if an Japan or America with great attention They’re all gay, let’s face it. And they from about 1973–1985. I can’t even expedition was going up Mount Everest to craftsmanship and details. all design womens­wear because they remember what I was doing back they would probably have employed Nigel It’s true that my product is want to dress like women and look then. Life’s always been a big rush for scientists to work on their gear. The niche. There aren’t that many niche like women. So it was hard to get me; it’s never been easy. I’ve always Everest parka I make was originally products out there: Engineered inspiration for me back then. When been rushing. Everyone thinks I’m on designed by Fairydown in New Zealand, Garments is sort of niche, Yuketen is I went to Paris in 1968, all I saw was drugs! [Laughs] Truth is, my only a company that made sleeping bags. niche, so is Viberg. Visvim is sort of the couture houses. And of course, drug is the exercise. Anja A lot of your garments are still niche, but then he makes it all in they all had gilt chairs and giant mirrors Anja Exercise? Really? What’s your made in England, why is that important? China and charges the earth for it. I’m – it was all crap. I thought, ‘What’s routine? Nigel Because I’m an old fart. [Laughs] sorry but I don’t see how you can this? What have I gotten myself into?’ Nigel I read a book a couple of years England is my heritage but I also do it charge £1000 for a pair of shoes made Anja Clearly the gilt chairs and elabo- ago and it said that if you want to stay because I have control, it looks in China. rate mirrors didn’t put you off fashion young you’ve got to exercise six days beautiful and I’m proud of it. I don’t David When you use the word ‘niche’ for long… a week. So I thought, ‘I’m up for that!’ want to make stuff in fucking China. – what does it mean to you? Nigel True. In my third year of fashion Now I get up at 5.30 every morning to David You make quite a few things in Nigel ‘Niche’ means that something college I started my own business. I was go training. I take a ten-pound Japan too, right? How do you get on is exclusive, small and beautiful. I’m manufacturing everything locally and medicine ball with me when I travel, with production there? all about niche. I still support Scun- selling to a radius of about forty miles, and I go running with it. When I’m at Nigel I have partners in Japan, six thorpe United, where I was born. that’s what we all did back then. And home I have three trainers: a boxing shops and a full team. I go to Japan I don’t support fucking Newcastle in 1972 I met Paul Smith who became trainer, a table tennis trainer and a five times a year. I have a wife and even though I live there! I’ve always my agent – he got me into all the London tennis trainer. I train two hours every children and everything there. I’m been an underdog. I’ve had to fight shops. In fact Paul showed me the first day, six days a week. just joking! [Laughs] for everything I get. I compare myself vintage garment I ever saw – I didn’t David That’s very impressive! But back Anja How did you get big in Japan? to my football team, which is in the know vintage existed until 1978. to the fashion… How do you decide on Nigel It started in 1980. I was show- lower divisions of the English football David What was the garment? what historical eras to focus on? ing in Paris and this Japanese man league. You can get from the lower Nigel It was a RAF jacket, a little Nigel Mainly that’s to do with the came to my stand. He loved my division to the premier league, but short green one with the button and events that took place at the time. For product and said he wanted to you’ve got to be the best.

Vestoj On Slowness 157 Conversations on Slowness Nigel Cabourn

Anja You’re a well-known vintage [Laughs] Well I’ve always been a hard and textures to use. And I can’t have versions of the licensing deals of collector by now, but I imagine a lot worker but I’ve worked harder between the clothes fitting the way they did yesteryear. You’ve done several – of the garments that have been the sixty and sixty-five than I’ve ever done in 1950. But I do try to copy the little what’s the appeal? most important to you – Edmund in my life! My business had a real things when I can, trimmings and Nigel Well you make money from it. Hillary’s or George Mallory’s mountain- ­­ facelift in 2003. Not me though. I’m things like that. I love all the wooden You loan your name to somebody and eering gear for instance – can’t be still the same – I have a droopy eyelid components from the 1940s and 50s they pay you for it. But I don’t say yes bought. How do you get to the and a few other bits and bobs that – nobody else makes those. to everything. I said no to Moncler. garments that aren’t on the market? need sorting out. [Laughs] David What was the first garment you They were doing a collaboration with Nigel I’m a nightmare in museums. Anja What happened in 2003? made in that way? Visvim but didn’t want to continue They all know who I am, and if they Nigel I was pretty much on the bones Nigel It was the Everest parka, and and I said to them, I said, ‘If you can’t don’t know I tell them! And when of my arse in 2000. I was doing terrible. after that I made the Cameraman make a success from working with I go I want everything out too! The Sam Sugure told me, ‘Look, you’ve got jacket. I actually found out that Sir Visvim, you’re not going to make one only place that hasn’t helped me is to get back to doing things you really Hillary’s Everest parka still exists, in with me – we’re two peas in a pod’. the Imperial-fucking-War Museum – believe in’. At the time I was doing a a museum in Christchurch, New And also I asked them about their I’ve been knocking on their door for consultancy job for Berghaus and Zealand. I couldn’t get off the plane vintage and they didn’t have any. twelve months now. The Royal I was digging into mountaineering quick enough to get to the fucking When I asked them about their Geographical Society opened their books for them and I realised that museum! When I saw the Everest customer they were after the same as arms to me though. They asked me, the fiftieth anniversary of Sir Edmund parka – well it’s actually the Antarctica me so I just thought, what’s the point? ‘Would you like to see George Mallory’s Hillary’s ascent to Everest was coming parka. I tell everybody it’s the Everest I’d be doing a me two. But I could clothes? We’ve actually got them up. I went to the Lake District to look parka, but actually he went across the have made a lot of money from it; for here!’ I was like, ‘You’re fucking at his clothes and I couldn’t believe Antarctica in it. I’ve just rolled it all those sorts of collaborations you can joking!’ I picked up his neckerchief what I found. I just hit lucky, and it into one. Everyone thinks he went up make £3–400 000. – it’s still caked in blood you know. changed my whole life. I found images the Everest in a red parka, but it was Anja Recently you started doing womens- I tell everybody that he went up the of Hillary and Tenzing and their whole a blue one actually. [Laughs] wear, after forty years of only doing Everest in a tweed jacket, but he didn’t team and their clothes are fucking David What’s the value of the – real menswear. How come? really. What happened was that he amazing. I just looked at them and or imagined – narratives that you spin Nigel Well I met this girl, a real pretty kept a tweed jacket in his rucksack thought, ‘I’m going to fucking make all around your garments? girl she was too. When I first saw her and whenever someone took a photo, those clothes’. And I did. And I’m still Nigel I’m a great romantic – I could tell I thought, ‘She looks like a nice girl, he put it on as the gentleman he was. living on it today. It’s a bit like that you stories about every little detail on I bet she’d be good to hang with’. But Anja Are there any living men who song ‘Tell Laura I Love Her’. Ricky a garment. People come up to me and she turned out to be a nightmare. have inspired you? Valance recorded it in 1960, and he ask me why my clothes are so expen- She was Hungarian and I’m romantic Nigel I’ve worked a lot with Nino was still fucking singing it in 1990. Let’s sive, so I tell them. The stories justify about the Hungarians because of Cerruti, he’s a marvelous man. A face it, Bill Haley & His Comets, they the price you know. What I’m saying is Ferenc Puskás. Do you know him? fucking card. He’s inspired me, I tell only had ‘Rock Around The Clock’, that it’s not just any old garment. The I love Puskás. He was one of the best you. I bought cashmere from him and but it kept them going a long time! thing is, most people make clothing footballers in the world. This girl, she made him a duffel coat. He makes Anja How do you decide which just for money. I do it because I love looked like Gerda Taro. At the time amazing fabrics. He employs four vintage garments to work from? Do making a good product. If I make money I was obsessed with Robert Capa and thousand people now and he’s eighty- you alter or update the pieces at all? out of it, that’s a bonus. If I don’t, it still Gerda Taro and I was thinking about four. You know what he told me five Nigel I do. I Cabournise them. doesn’t bother me too much. doing something on the Spanish years ago? He said, ‘I was an inter­ I mean, there’s only so much you David Designer collaborations have Revolution. But I had to find a British national playboy until I was sixty. can learn from images; at some point become hugely popular the last few angle, because that’s always my take. Then at sixty I really started to work’. I have to decide what fabrics, colours years – they’re like the contemporary I found out that 2000 British civilians

Vestoj On Slowness 159 Conversations on Slowness volunteered to go there and so I did the They’re only fashion garments because story on them. And Robert Capa of that’s what people perceive them to course. I roll it all in. And what I don’t be – I don’t see them that way. You know, I make up! Anyway, so I worked could still go mountaineering in them. with this girl for eighteen months on the They wouldn’t be so practical because womenswear. We travelled all over the garments today are much lighter than place. I didn’t lay my hands on her or they used to be, but you could still do anything – I’m not like that! I just it. I just do what I do because I love it. liked her company. And she looked I don’t know if I have a better expla- like Gerda Taro. Have you seen Gerda nation. It’s like when Sir Edmund Taro? She got crushed by a tank in 1937. Hillary was asked why he decided Anja Is this girl still working with you? to climb Everest; he said, ‘I just like Nigel No she ran off. She was complet- ­ going up’. ely mad, but I liked her. One day she David Considering that you’ve been just flipped and ran off. I was quite working in fashion for over forty shocked actually. Now I have a girl from years, what changes in the industry Dover Street Market who designs the have you found the most striking? collection. She’s so good. She’s normal Nigel Fucking hell – they’re endless! and she just fucking gets on with it. When I started in the 1970s every­ Anja What does ‘authenticity’ mean to body wanted to help me. I got a £6000 you? Why have you chosen to use it loan from the bank, just based on the as a tagline? fact that I looked like a nice young Nigel Authenticity means that some­ lad. You didn’t have to put your house thing is original, and that it comes from up back then – bank managers were a vintage piece. The fabric is real. It’s willing to take a chance. And then functional. It does what it says. If I’ve there’s all the new technology. Until taken a design from a 1950s garment 1982, before the fax machine, we had with wooden trimmings, then my gar­ to send everything by courier. And ment will have wooden trimmings too. the last ten years the mobile phone I want my garments to be the real deal. has changed everything again. My I don’t want anything nancy pansy. daughter has taught me how to send Anja How does the ‘authenticity’ of emails with my phone. I still can’t a garment change when you adapt a send emails with the normal computer. piece intended for practical use – [Laughs] Fucking technology is fright­ like the military or mountaineering ening, you know, for an older person. garments you so often use – into I get loads of help. My boxing coach a ‘fashion’ garment? tells me ‘Nige, you’ve got someone Nigel You’re asking me deep doing everything for you!’ questions now. I don’t know if my Anja Except the training. thinking goes that deep most of the Nigel Yeah, except the training – I’ve time. If my garments happen to be got to do that myself! [Laughs] 2 fashion garments, then so be it.

Vestoj On Slowness Idle Days

On Warm Gravel, Languid Afternoons and Pointing Overhead for the Passing Day

Photographs by Mark Borthwick With words by Henry David Thoreau from Walden; or, Life in the Woods, 1854

163

My days were not days of the week, bearing the stamp of any heathen deity, nor were they minced into hours and fretted by the ticking of a clock; for I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that ‘for yesterday, today, and tomorrow they have only one word, and they express the variety of meaning by pointing backward for yesterday forward for tomorrow, and overhead for the passing day’. This was sheer idleness to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting.

169

slow and steady wins the race

On Making a Case for Fashion Education in Cultural Capitalism

By Professor Frances Corner

179 Slow and Steady Wins the Race

The medium, or process, of our building communities, transforming time – electric technology – is knowledge and creating a tangible re-shaping and restructuring sense of purpose for staff and students patterns of social interdependence through the activities, talents, skills and every aspect of our personal and learning that we develop. A life. It is forcing us to reconsider confluence of challenges, a perfect and re-evaluate every thought, storm of influences, is forcing fashion every action, and every institution educators to rethink the purpose and formerly taken for granted. Every­ means of the education we provide. thing is changing: you, your family, This concerns not only technological your education, your neighbour­ shifts, but also the pressures of hood, your job, your government, climate change, globalisation and your relation to the others. And shrinking resources as well as an they are changing dramatically. increasingly well-informed student body, well versed in social media Marshall McLuhan, The Medium and with high expectations. is the Massage, 1967 With a purpose of preparing for the future while understanding the present, educators have a duty to This quote from Marshall McLuhan may be nearly fifty years old but it is every bit as relevant today. It poses the draw out the tensions within the question: how should we operate in contemporary fashion system. While the future? What sort of institutions, it exploits the labour and resources individuals and organisations do we of developing countries, those very want? What kind of society are we countries and their populations are seeking to be a part of? In a time of also dependent on the industry for predatory capitalism and the in- progress and growth. As educators, creasing commodification of all exploring this tension with our aspects of our lives, educators of students is one of our most important every kind must focus on preparing tasks. Faced with an industry that students for a world that is changing is itself responding to the challenges on an almost daily basis with many and opportunities presented by of its previously accepted norms the shifting sands of the twenty-first upended. Old systems and structures century, we need to ensure that a that business, industry and education fashion student’s education is not only have traditionally been predicated on the basis for a future career within have shifted. There is no going back; a complex and ever-changing business, new models are needed. but also one that does not miss oppor- A shrinking world, with border- tunities to help the industry face its less communication systems, means challenges by adopting creative and that as fashion educators we need to experimental solutions. be clear about what we offer. Edu- Slow fashion, with its aim to cational institutions must focus on bring about changes to the fashion

181 Frances Corner Slow and Steady Wins the Race system whereby the constant need being only a consumer’.1 In other better minds so that they are not clothes we wear means that there is to buy new trends is slowed to a words, the arguably egotist act of ignorant of imaginative experience, hardly anyone or anything left in our more realistic and sustainable pace, consumption is compensated and both in the arts and in science, nor world not touched by fashion. is perhaps one answer to this conun- we can revel in the warm feeling that ignorant either of the endowments In a creative education, practical drum. However, the challenge for comes with having done a good deed. of applied science, of the remediable and intellectual experiences are slow fashion is not merely how to Nevertheless, global arrested suffering of most of their fellow humans, combined with the use of relevant curb capitalism’s relentless drive consumption seems an unlikely and of the responsibilities which, once technologies and media, so students for growth but rather the apparent solution. In spite of everything, they are seen, cannot be denied’.3 can come to realise their intentions in contradiction in doing so while fashion, for all its flaws, caters to Snow was interested in how order to create a series of innovative, honouring an industry that lives the human need for expression. higher education institutions through expressive and dynamic outputs. off the constant need for change As the philosopher Simon Critchley their subjects, discipline and research Whereas the teaching and learning and reinvention. After all, while argues: ‘The human being is the could address great global challenges of fashion was once focused on resources are growing scarce, fashioned animal and fashion is such as poverty. We are being chal- developing the creative and aesthetic consumer appetite for commodities the key to understanding the human lenged in this complex world to see skills, talents and abilities of the appears insatiable. With this in mind, being’.2 Though our need to continu- how a topic such as fashion, which students, it has today evolved into it is apt to ask whether the slow ously explore who we are through the for many is ephemeral at best and a subject discipline that greatly values fashion movement is in fact a form clothes that we wear questions lightweight and exploitative at worst, critical, contextual and conceptual of greenwash. Can a system based whether we can ever achieve a truly can be harnessed to fully capitalise dexterity. Rather like the creative on rapid production and consumption sustainable fashion industry, it also on its economic, cultural and social process itself, creative education ever incorporate slowness? points to the fact that fashion is today strengths. Through the application should be a holistic experience that In a globalised and plural society a necessary part of modern life. of inspiration, aspiration, beauty and ensures that students understand where we can seemingly access all With this in mind, new methods fun, all inherent qualities of fashion how the range of skills they develop knowledge at the click of a button and models of production, and at the best of times, we should be interrelates and can be applied to the whilst simultaneously buying any questions about what it means to challenging ourselves to rethink how world outside university walls. product we want, slow fashion seems consume, should be at the heart of we produce and consume fashion. In an age of instant communi- a tough ask. Today when we know the subject of fashion. Education has As educators we need to channel cation there is no excuse for apathy that branding is king, claims to sus- to be about how we transform the such thinking (by students as well or ignorance. We are all made well tainable or slow fashion by global thinking of our students, how we give as staff) into research and curriculum aware of the sufferings of fellow labels can easily seem like just them opportunities to investigate, projects, special events and other humans and of the impact of climate another marketing ploy. The experiment and thoroughly test their enterprising activities to work beyond change and resource depletion. The philosopher Slavoj Zižek has argued ideas. But education should also be traditional academic boundaries to UN definition of a sustainable future that when we buy into green modes about how it transforms the way we instead reach out to industry and is one where the needs of those in of consumption, we essentially buy think as a society, as a culture, and communities. How can we champion the present do not compromise into an ideal – fair pay for workers, how, as educators, we can take res- the capacity that fashion has to make the lives of those in the future. For sustainable production methods or ponsibility for not only our students you feel better, its inherent value in fashion, and by implication fashion ecological balance. This form of and our subjects, but also for our the development of personal skill, educators, this means creating an ‘cultural capitalism’ means that rather external environment. As British craft, and technology, its quality of environment where all aspects of the than separating charity and capital- novelist and scientist Charles Percy communication and connection? creation, manufacture, retail, con- ism, the two have merged. Buying Snow stated in his controversial 1959 After all, though complex political and sumption and disposal of clothing an eco garment at a fast fashion lecture The Two Cultures: economic interdependencies and does not compromise the world’s company for instance, you, as Zižek ‘With good fortune, however, we uncertainties abound, the desire to peoples and its resources, either puts it, ‘buy your redemption from can educate a larger proportion of our find personal expression through the now or in the future. 2

Vestoj On Slowness 183 In Praise of Shadows by junichiro tanizaki 1933

One thinks of the practice of blackening the teeth. Might it not have been an attempt to push everything except the face into the dark? Today this ideal of beauty has quite disappeared from everyday life, and one must go to an ancient Kyoto teahouse, such as the Sumiya in Shimabara, to find traces of it. But when I think back to my own youth in the old downtown section of Tokyo, and I see my mother at work on her sewing in the dim light from the garden, I think I can imagine a little what the old Japanese woman was like. In those days – it was around 1890 – the Tokyo towns- man still lived in a dusky house, and my mother, my aunts, my relatives, most women of their age, still blackened their teeth. I do not remember what they wore for every- day, but when they went out it was often in a gray kimono with a small, modest pattern. My mother was remarkably slight, under five feet I should say, and I do not think that she was unusual for her time. I can put the matter strongly: women in those days had almost no flesh. I remember my mother’s face and hands, I can clearly remember her feet, but I can remember nothing about her body. She reminds me of Excerpt from In Praise of Shadows. the statue of Kannon in the Chuguji, whose body must

185 junichiro tanizaki in praise of shadows be typical of most Japanese women of the past. The day. Were it not for shadows, there would be no beauty. chest as flat as a board, breasts paper-straight thin, Our ancestors made of woman an object inseparable back, hips, and buttocks forming an undeviating from darkness, like lacquerware decorated in gold or straight line, the whole body so lean and gaunt as to mother-of-pearl. They hid as much of her as they could seem out of proportion with the face, hands, and feet, in shadows, concealing her arms and legs in the folds so lacking in substance as to give the impression not of of long sleeves and skirts, so that one part and one flesh but of a stick – must not the traditional Japanese only stood out – her face. The curveless body may, woman have had such a physique? A few are still about by comparison with Western women, be ugly. But our – the aged lady in an old-fashioned household, some thoughts do not travel to what we cannot see. The un- few geisha. They remind me of stick dolls, for in fact seen for us does not exist. The person who insists upon they are nothing more than poles upon which to hang seeing her ugliness, like the person who would shine clothes. As with the dolls their substance is made up of a hundred-candlepower light upon the picture alcove, layer upon layer of clothing, bereft of which only an drives away whatever beauty may reside there. ungainly pole remains. But in the past this was sufficient. For a woman who lived in the dark it was enough if she had a faint, white face – a full body was necessary. I suppose it is hard for those who praise the fleshly beauty we see under today’s bright lights to imagine the ghostly beauty of those older women. And there may be some who argue that if beauty has to hide its weak points in the dark it is not beauty at all. But we Orientals, as I have suggested before, create a kind of beauty of the shadows we have made in out-of-the-way places. There is an old song that says ‘the brushwood we gather – stack it together, it makes a hut; pull it apart, a field once more’. Such is our way of thinking – we find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and the darkness, that one thing against another creates. A phosphorescent jewel gives off its glow and colour in the dark and loses its beauty in the light of

186 187 All photographs: copyright Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Fashioning Rebirth

On Mourning and Memory in a Papua New Guinea Village

By Professor John Barker

All photographs: Maisin widows, Papua New Guinea, c.1902–1910. Photographer Percy John Money.

189 Fashioning Rebirth

dating back to Captain James Cook’s famous voyages in the eighteenth century, all but a handful of objects are stored permanently in warehouses in the greater London area. The sailors who brought back the oldest clubs, carved gods, painted bark-cloth, among other things, called their souvenirs ‘curios’. I imagine that the few tourists who pause to glance at the Oceanic displays regard them as little more than curious. Pacific Islanders have a very different response. Along with oral traditions and fading photographs, these few objects are often the only link they The British Museum is famed for the magnificent collections from ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern have with an ancestral past that has civilisations which fill its front halls. largely vanished. They hold an inner Those willing to venture further power, aptly described by the Poly- discover equally arresting treasures nesian word mana. from Asia and Africa. On the way, This May, my wife and I felt the visitors pass through a connecting tug of mana as we toured the Oceanic gallery, often pausing to have their display. For more than three decades, photo taken in front of a stern-faced we have worked in a remote coastal moai ancestral statue from Rapa Nui area of Papua New Guinea document- (Eastern Island), the most remote of ing the lives of the Maisin people. The the far flung Polynesian islands in the British Museum holds more than 300 South Pacific. Few pay any attention objects purchased from the Maisin and to the artefacts on display nearby their neighbours by Anglican missio- although, for Oceanic people, these naries working in Collingwood Bay remnants of their rich cultural artistic around the year 1900. I had seen heritage are as significant as the most of these objects in the British Egyptian mummies or magnificent Museum stores before – intricately ancient Greek sculptures that draw designed bark-cloth skirts, dancing the crowds. This modest gallery with ornaments, plumed headdresses and its display of rather ordinary looking everyday items like fish nets. Nothing, objects (with the striking exception however, prepared us for the emotional of the moai) misleads in a different charge we felt as we came upon one sense. The Oceanic collection at the of the most significant of the Maisin British Museum is massive, perhaps pieces on open display: a bark-cloth the largest in the world. Among the cap and vest covered with strings of founding collections at the Museum, fine grey-pearl Job’s Tears seeds.

191 John Barker Fashioning Rebirth

In the late 1890s, a bereaved lack of adornment. Meanwhile, villag- widow or widower reverts to a de- A year later, my wife and I atten- woman sat quietly in a secluded ers avoided the areas most frequented pendent child remained at the heart ded the roi babasi (‘face-cleaning’) corner of an in-law’s house, hidden by by her dead husband so as not to of the Maisin way of responding to ceremony marking the end of Rufus’ a bark-cloth curtain, quietly preparing irritate his lingering spirit. There were death. In fact, this idea has become youngest wife Mary Ann’s mourning. her widow’s costume (which also in- almost certainly some strains between stronger. Over the decades, there has In the morning, Rufus’ people took cluded seeded armlets and earrings). her people and her husband’s extended been a shift in emphasis from the her to a bathing spot, removed her Upon the death of her husband, she kin, given pervasive suspicion that initial emotionally violent moment dingy clothes, washed and then had wailed and sung dirges with her most deaths are the result of sorcery. of the passing of life to the gradual dressed her in a new brightly painted sisters in his memory, lacerated A year or more after the death, the rebirth of mourners and the healing bark-cloth (‘tapa’) skirt. They led her her breasts with obsidian and burned husband’s people held a feast to re- of the community. And despite the back to the village and settled around her chest and arms in her grief. She move the final mourning restrictions fact that the Maisin have long ac- her on a large mat, as villagers lost everything. Her house had been and to signal the restorations of good cepted Western clothing as their gathered around to watch and chat pulled down, her food gardens des- relations with the spouse’s kin. Time daily wear, the transition from death convivially. A couple of senior women troyed, her children turned over to which had at first stopped and then to rebirth is still conveyed in the trimmed Mary Ann’s hair, adorned her her husband’s kin. Time stopped… gradually gained momentum now appearance of mourners. with fine shell ornaments and sprayed and then reversed. The widow was resumed its regular pace. In 2006, my good friend Rufus coconut oil on her skin to make it symbolically reduced to an infant at The Anglican missionaries who passed away. His passing was glisten. They surrounded her with the total mercy of her in-laws. They came to Collingwood Bay in 1898 announced to the village by the gifts of clothing, cooking pots, mats had to show her how to drink, how were relatively tolerant of native mournful sound of a conch shell and money. Maisin don’t think of the to eat, how to sew, how to speak, and customs for the period. All the same, blown three times. People gathered life process as something merely so forth. And she remained invisible they were appalled by the mourning around his house, the women wailing ‘natural’ which happens on its own. to others. When she needed to relieve practices and worked hard to sup- in their grief and the men sitting It requires the constant care of others, herself, she was covered in a bark- press what they perceived as the cruel silently, eyes downcast. An elder stood particularly one’s close kin. For a cloth blanket and made to crawl to treatment of widows. Yet they left at the door, calling out for Rufus’ spirit second time, Mary Ann had been the toilet following a line in the sand a precious record by selling widows’ to be at peace and not bring sickness nurtured through the slow process of drawn by a sister-in-law. costumes to several museums and to the village. A few minutes later, the birth and maturation. She was again The widow’s return to full life writing letters to supporters descri- priest arrived to lead a procession to for the moment a beautiful young girl, could take years, marked by a gradual bing the customs. When my wife and the cemetery where the burial rite free to seek a new marriage. That change in her appearance. When she I first came to Uiaku village in late was read out. Three days later, the evening, she enjoyed the feasting first emerged from seclusion, her 1981 to spend the next eighteen community gathered to share a meal, and dancing that celebrated Rufus’ body was covered and face obscured months living with the Maisin, we ‘putting up the smoke’ to mark the memory and the release of death’s by heavy Job’s Tear seeds. She was soon learned that death provided the end of community mourning. Time hold on the community. made to sit under her in-laws’ house, major ceremonial occasion in people’s stopped for Rufus’ three wives, who Like other rural Papua New a silent sentinel to death. As the lives apart from church services. went into deep mourning. However, Guinea communities, the Maisin have weeks passed, she was allowed to But much had changed. Only a few as opposed to times of yore, today experienced immense change through remove layers of beads, reflecting very old people recalled the widow’s their in-laws quickly gave them the colonial period and into the the gradual lightening of the burden mourning costume or bore the self- permission to appear in public and present. The establishment of of loss felt by her and the community. inflicted scars honouring a death. resume daily living as soon as they churches and schools familiarised Eventually, she quietly removed her Many associated customs had lapsed themselves felt fit. They marked their people with the discipline of the clock costume and resumed ordinary daily and the mourning practices had been continuing grief by wearing dark and calendar and provided an entry life, her bereavement marked only by modified to better conform to church clothing, remaining silent and not point to the new world of cash and her unkempt hair, downcast eyes and teachings. Yet the core idea that a cutting or combing their hair. employment. Yet to a remarkable

Vestoj On Slowness 193 John Barker Fashioning Rebirth

Vestoj On Slowness 195 John Barker extent, village life continues to reso- depicting the old mourning practices, nate with ancient conceptions of deep passing on the memory to the next time. The nine month maturation of generation. The missionary who taro, the key crop, recalls pregnancy purchased the widow’s mourning and birth. The public decorating of costume now held in trust in the widows at the end of the mourning British Museum was no doubt period recalls the moment adolescent motivated not just by the profit he girls undertaking the puberty rite of made in selling it, but equally by the passage emerge from seclusion with thought that he was hastening the tattooed faces, glistening skin and demise of a ‘barbaric’ custom. resplendently adorned bodies on Ironically, he helped preserve its display for all to admire. The mag- memory. For Collingwood Bay people nificent dances which mark important who visit the British Museum and occasions in the life cycle and church other institutions holding the mana high days recall a deeper temporality. filled objects of their ancestors, the While each costume is unique and widow’s vest is as foundational to ephemeral in the ways that individual their ongoing and evolving civilisation as the Parthenon marbles are to Europeans and their descendants. 2 dancers combine tapa, shells, feathers, fragrant plants and paint, they also mark distinctions between clans, each of which holds rights to specific timeless insignia such as bark- cloth designs. The pounding of the drums, the rhythmic shuffling of feet, the gentle swish of the costumes, the chants in an ancestral language that no one today understands – as all of this whirls and blends deep into the night, the dancers merge with their ancestors at the moment of creation when the clans emerged from the underground. Maisin continue to adapt to modern conditions. They no longer tattoo their daughters and rarely hold the once mandatory first-born initiation ritual. Yet they remain com- mitted to their ancestral heritage. A number of years ago, when I brought a film crew to the villages, I was surprised and delighted to watch village women perform a play

Vestoj On Slowness The Endless Stream The Endless Stream

On How to Recognise the Devils of Our Own Creation

Paintings by Ying Yan Quek With words by Rachel Carson from Silent Spring, 1962

One meter of corduroy fabric, one tube of acrylic paint, dried blue flower dye, one beetroot, coffee and tumeric were used to produce the following paintings.

199 White sewage discharged from textile dyeing factory in Yangtze River in Yichang, China. The history of life on earth has been a history of interaction between and all the rest of the minerals washed out of the rocks and carried living things and their surroundings. To a large extent, the physical in rivers to the sea; they are the synthetic creations of man’s form and the habits of the earth’s vegetation and its animal life have inventive mind, brewed in his laboratories, and having no counter- been moulded by the environment. Considering the whole span of parts in nature. earthly time, the opposite effect, in which life actually modifies its To adjust to these chemicals would require time on the scale surroundings, has been relatively slight. Only within the moment that is nature’s; it would require not merely the years of a man’s life of time represented by the present century has one species – man but the life of generations. And even this, were it by some miracle – acquired significant power to alter the nature of his world. possible, would be futile, for the new chemicals come from our During the past quarter century this power has not only laboratories in an endless stream. increased to one of disturbing magnitude but it has changed in [...] character. The most alarming of all man’s assaults upon the Along with the possibility of the extinction of mankind by environment is the contamination of air, earth, rivers, and sea with nuclear war, the central problem of our age has therefore become dangerous and even lethal materials. This pollution is for the most the contamination of man’s total environment with such substances part irrecoverable; the chain of evil it initiates not only in the world of incredible potential for harm – substances that accumulate in that must support life but in living tissues is for the most part the tissues of plants and animals and even penetrate the germ cells irreversible. In this now universal contamination of the environment, to shatter or alter the very material of heredity upon which the shape chemicals are the sinister and little-recognised partners of radiation of the future depends. in changing the very nature of the world – the very nature of its life. […] As Albert Schweitzer has said, ‘Man can hardly even recognise the devils of his own creation’. It took hundreds of millions of years to produce the life that now inhabits the earth – eons of time in which that developing and evolving and diversifying life reached a state of adjustment and balance with its surroundings. The environment, rigorously shaping and directing the life it supported, contained elements that were hostile as well as supporting. Certain rocks gave out dangerous radiation; even within the light of the sun, from which all life draws its energy, there were short-wave radiations with power to injure. Given time – time not in years but in millennia – life adjusts, and a balance has been reached. For time is the essential ingredient; but in the modern world there is no time. The rapidity of change and the speed with which new situations are created follow the impetuous and heedless pace of man rather than the deliberate pace of nature. Radiation is no longer merely the background radiation of rocks, the bombardment of cosmic rays, the ultraviolet of the sun that have existed before there was any life on earth; radiation is now the unnatural creation of man’s tampering with the atom. The chemicals to which life is asked to make its adjustment are no longer merely the calcium and silica and copper

Vestoj On Slowness 203 Violet foam effluents from dye factories upstream in Tullahan River in Manila, The Philippines. River dyed bluish-green from dyes and sludge from textile industries in Balotra, Bithuja and Jasol in the River Luni in Western Rajasthan, India. The art of jeans

On Mending and Making Do

By Anja Aronowsky Cronberg With photographs by Justine Kurland

209 The Art of Jeans

tradition of repurposing, customising, mending and making do, this stance could be seen as an anti-consumerist protest of sorts, or maybe just as a way of finding an original voice in a sea full of carbon copies. Whether embroidered, ripped, torn, bleached, cut, mended, accessorised or patched, these denim garments are made unique by the intimate connection that they have to their owner, and by the passing of time. The connection between denim, craftsmanship, time and fashion is a highly personal one, measured neither in capital nor technological advances, but rather in the accumulation of memories. In a world where information over­ load threatens to engulf us, passing the time carefully working on the garments in your wardrobe becomes a way of, at least momentarily, slowing We have come a long way from the days when denim was the rebel’s uniform. Today the fabric is as ubiquitous in down the frenetic pace of our culture. the businessman’s wardrobe as it is in There is an ever-growing number of the teenager’s and the hobo’s. We can people like these six, questioning buy diamond-encrusted denim, made temporal irreversibility and what in ateliers of the haute couture or appears to be our need for constant resort to versions manufactured in far- progress. In that questioning lies away factories by dexterous children’s a myriad of alternative voices and hands. Indeed, we are consuming divergent answers, but one thing denim, along with just about every- is clear: whatever the method, thing else, as never before. But in this these garments are, perhaps more culture when virtually anything can than anything else, autobiographies be bought for money and when denim in cloth. is for square and hepcat alike, how can it remain distinctive to its users? With these six portraits we pro- pose a future for denim in the singular relationship between garment and wearer that arises when a piece of clothing has been worked on by hand. Returning then to the time honoured

211 The Art of Jeans

This dress was a gift to myself; I made Aki it from denim given to me by friends over the years. I’m pregnant and Goto making it made me think about the baby growing in my belly. I love how spacious it is and how free wearing it makes me feel. When I found out I was pregnant I was immensely moved but also scared. Somehow I couldn’t quite believe it. Making a maternity dress was a kind of manifestation of my pregnancy in that sense, and a way to prove to myself and to the world that I’m actually pregnant. I first started making clothes for myself from recycled denim when I moved from Japan to New York. At the time I was unsure of what to do with my life. I started working with a designer and she gave me some leftover material. I began experi­ menting, making whatever I felt like wearing and, though I never asked for it, more friends started giving me their old clothes. Since I’m not a trained designer I don’t use patterns, I just put the fabric on my body and start to sew. I never start with a fixed idea of the result; I just let the moment guide me. I sew everything by hand, and when things break I fix them. I love the stories hidden in repairs. Recently I moved to the countryside and I’m learning about permaculture. It’s helping me immensely to feel at ease with my work and my circumstances. When I worry or doubt myself I try to remember its core principle – harmony. Whether I make a dress or plant a seed, this is my guiding light now.

Vestoj On Slowness 213 The Art of Jeans

I’m more of a dandy than I look Nayland actually and I do love to talk about clothes. I have a basic uniform that Blake carries me through work and casual situations; it consists of black jeans and a work shirt. When you deal with students, as I do, you have to be careful because they project their own narratives onto you and I don’t want to give them more ammunition. The weekend is the time when I wear what I want, which these days tends to be overalls. The jacket I’m wearing in the image is from Old Navy, I bought it about ten years ago. It was one of those fashionable pieces that are sold looking already distressed and with time it’s taken on a real patina too. The trousers are from Carhartt and I love how beat up they’ve become around the cuffs. I would never wear them to work, they’re too grimy, but I wear them on the weekends or when I’m going out. I must have had them for almost twenty years now. Let’s just say that they’ve been effective date bait over the years. I wear them with suspenders which frame my belly in a really nice way. These days I’m blessed with a size that means that I’m automatically out of the running for most fashion. Nobody really designs for guys that are my size and shape. Believe me, I’ve looked. So generally I hold onto things for a long time and if I find something that works, I’ll just keep wearing it.

Vestoj On Slowness 215 The Art of Jeans

I made this skirt for myself out of a Hannah pair of old jeans about ten years ago now. The jeans were well worn to Kurland start with and over the years the skirt has become even more ragged. I love finding vintage clothing or things that people have discarded and repurpos- ing them. My mum used to make costumes at Renaissance fairs around the country when I was growing up, and she and my grandmother taught me how to sew as a girl. I started repurposing clothes as an adult when I realised that I couldn’t find what I wanted in the stores. I have mixed feelings about the way we buy clothes nowadays. On the one hand I like that I can walk into a high street store and buy a version of something I’ve seen and liked on the catwalk, available at my price point. But on the other hand, the fact that these clothes are mass­produced and have such a rapid turnover sometimes makes me feel like I’m just buying landfill. By contrast, when I buy old clothes the hunt is one of the things I like the most. I get a rush from knowing that I’ve found a long-forgotten garment that I can turn into something really unique. It’s contemporary hunting and gathering. With this skirt, it was a bit like that. I like the rock ’n’ roll grunginess of it and the fact that it also has an element of elegance because though it’s tattered and worn, it’s still a long skirt. I remember wearing it with a tube top on the beach in Miami when my daughter was still really little, and how good wearing it made me feel.

Vestoj On Slowness 217 The Art of Jeans

I made the first pair of these jeans in Scott 1999. At the time there was a lot of unrest in the city because an unarmed Gibson African street vendor called Amadou Diallo had just been shot by the NYPD. I was working at the time so I couldn’t join the protests in the city, but I still wanted to show my support in some way. I made these jeans during the trial, and to remember what had happened I patched them forty-one times – as many times as Diallo had been shot by the police. Recently we’ve had several similar shootings in America and it’s made me think of how little things have changed. As a black man this is something I’m acutely aware of, so I decided to make another pair of jeans as a reaction to what’s happening. The jacket I’ve had almost ten years now. I turned one I already had inside out, altered the pockets and added a zipper to make it more utilitarian. My clothes are a nod to Do-It- Yourself culture. People say that you can’t do it all yourself, but I’ve always had to, and today when so much is identical fast fashion it makes me feel really good to know that my clothes are not store-bought. I love turning things inside out or picking them apart to find out how they’re made. It all comes from my old sewing teacher I think. She used to say that garments should look as good inside as out, so I figured that if that’s the truth, why not just wear a garment inside out?

Vestoj On Slowness 219 The Art of Jeans

My shorts were originally trousers that Rory belonged to someone I was seeing for a summer, two summers ago. It was Mulligan just a summer fling really, not very serious – most of my friends didn’t even know we were dating. He wasn’t the most organised or neat person and one day he just left these jeans behind. Time passed and I neglected to remind him because I really liked them, and when he left the city in August they got left behind. That I made them into shorts was partly pragmatic and partly symbolic I think. I’m sensitive and I get attached quite easily so although I knew that our relationship was temporary I still felt pretty sad when he left. His jeans were full of his smell and seeing them became quite painful. I considered throwing them out but that didn’t feel quite right because I still really liked them, and I knew they looked good on me. So cutting them became symbolic, a bit like when Delilah cuts Samson’s hair off in order to break the spell. Cutting them made me feel that they properly belonged to me. I knew I’d want them rolled up rather than frayed. I like lines and evenness, and the roll-up feels more severe and more me somehow. I also think my legs are my best feature, which makes the shorts a good advertisement for my body. I wear them almost every day in summer. From time to time their provenance comes back to me a little, but mostly I don’t even think of where they came from anymore. They’re just my best shorts now.

Vestoj On Slowness 221 The Art of Jeans

I’ve had these jeans for quite some Shireen time now. They’re old Gap jeans that I bought on one of those shopping Abrishamian sprees you do with your friends when you hang around the dressing room together and tell each other ‘that looks nice’. Somehow they just never got worn – I suppose I didn’t like how much I cared about how I looked in them. So I decided to cut them up instead. I started with a silver chain that I cut off this really horrible handbag and then looped across the back. After that I attached some velour leopard print to create more of a flare. I’ve glued and stitched flowers cut from other clothes in silky materials and a horseshoe and gun cut from old jeans. The gun is on the right side of my thigh, where I’d keep a real gun if I had one. There’s a dagger there too, taken from an old jacket that I used to love when I was in third grade. On the front I have this chain of gold coins that jingle when I walk and remind me of my Persian heritage. And on the back it says ‘angel’, but not in an ironic way – I’m quite bored with irony now. I think it’s curious how often loaded, iconic images get watered down in consumerist fashion. I mean, we spend hours analysing the icono- graphy of a painting for example, but when we wear the same motifs on our clothes they automatically become devoid of meaning. I guess you could say that these jeans are my way of

challenging that. 2

Vestoj On Slowness 223 machine oil smells sweet one day we will use ourselves up the symptoms of our speed will wear bare parched contact between finger and thumb fleeting ding ding ding ding ding we will not be able to faster we will keep to the shade away from reflective surfaces clock time precise monsters we will make exactly the same movement one hundred times an hour our stitches converging into even with the old machines we could have a bit of a breather control our the next break ding ding ding ding ding now the machine controls the pace owns our the machine is never tired touched with tender fitted with surprise gifts the machine’s future too far unknowable from where we sit here machine oil smells sweet our end is accelerating same time every morning except this one chin drops ding ding ding ding ding we do not know how to everything we were only shown not necessary to see the this bit and this bit do not necessarily finish this bit ding ding ding ding ding no women under twenty five nimble eyes more washed than ours ding ding ding ding ding beginning from slack scraps started with sun allowed nothing with your hands except for the needful death is detail we skim shadows arriving early to catch the dawn leaking gracefully borders are created only by the repetition of our hands simply binding shallow hem to hair can almost make out ding ding ding ding ding per hour layers stacking we are not able to move about our necks the window light pumping as blood soft motes loose road the window five red petals drop brown ding ding ding ding ding we leave a small gap in the pattern by hand the pattern completes itself without us learns more quickly than we ever will we are no longer needed by what we created

Maria Fusco The Middle Drawer by hortense calisher 1948

The drawer was always kept locked. In a household where the tangled rubbish of existence had collected on surfaces like a scurf, which was forever being cleared away by her mother and the maid, then by her mother, and, finally, hardly at all, it had been a perma- nent cell – rather like, Hester thought wryly, the gene that is carried over from one generation to the other. Now, holding the small, square, indelibly known key in her hand, she shrank before it, reluctant to per- form the blasphemy that the living must inevitably perpetrate on the possessions of the dead. There were no revelations to be expected when she opened the drawer, only the painful reiteration of her mother’s personality and the power it had held over her own, which would rise – an emanation, a mist, that she herself had long since shredded away, parted, and escaped. She repeated to herself, like an incantation, ‘I am married. I have a child of my own, a home of my own five hundred miles away. I have not even lived in this house – my parents’ house – for over seven years’. Stepping back, she sat on the bed where her mother From The Collected Stories of Hortense Calisher. had died the week before, slowly, from cancer, where

229 hortense calisher the middle drawer

Hester had held the large, long-fingered, competent ugly, expensive bar pin that had been his gift to his wife hand for a whole night, watching the asphyxiating on the birth of her son. Hester had never before seen action of the fluid mounting in the lungs until it had either of them, for the fashion of wearing diamonds extinguished the breath. She sat facing the drawer. indiscriminately had never been her mother’s, who was It had taken her all her own lifetime to get to know contemptuous of other women’s display, although she its full contents, starting from the first glimpses, when might spend minutes in front of the mirror debating she was just able to lean her chin on the side and have a choice between two relatively gimcrack pieces of her hand pushed away from the packets and japanned costume jewellery. Hester had never known why this boxes, to the last weeks, when she had made a careful was until recently, when the separation of the last few show of not noticing while she got out the necessary years had relaxed the tension between her mother bankbooks and safe-deposit keys. Many times during and herself – not enough to prevent explosions when her childhood, when she had lain blandly ill herself, they met but enough for her to see, obscurely, the elevated to the honour of the parental bed while she long motivations of her mother’s life. In the European suffered from the ‘auto-intoxication’ that must have sense, family jewellery was Property, and with all her been 1918’s euphemism for plain piggishness, the faultless English and New World poise, her mother drawer had been opened. Then she had been allowed had never exorcised her European core. to play with the two pairs of pearled opera glasses or In the back of the middle drawer, there was a small the long string of graduated white china beads, each square of brown-toned photograph that had never with its oval sides flushed like cheeks. Over these she escaped into the large, ramshackle portfolio of family had sometimes spent the whole afternoon, pencilling pictures kept in the drawer of the old break-front two eyes and a pursed mouth on each bead, until she bookcase, open to any hand. Seated on a bench, had achieved an incredible string of minute, doll-like Hedwig Licht, aged two, brows knitted under ragged heads that made even her mother laugh. hair, stared mournfully into the camera with the huge, Once while Hester was in college, the drawer had heavy-lidded eyes that had continued to brood in her been opened for the replacement of her grandmother’s face as a woman, the eyes that she had transmitted to great sunburst pin, which she had never before seen Hester, along with the high cheekbones that she had and which had been in pawn, and doggedly reclaimed deplored. Fat, wrinkled stockings were bowed into arcs over a long period by her mother. And for Hester’s wed- that almost met at the high-stretched boots, which did ding her mother had taken out the delicate diamond not touch the floor; to hold up the stockings, strips chain – the ‘lavaliere’ of the Gibson-girl era – that had of calico matching the dumpy little dress were bound been her father’s wedding gift to her mother, and the around the knees.

230 231 hortense calisher the middle drawer

Long ago, Hester, in her teens, staring tenaciously Years later, when this woman, Hester’s step- into the drawer under her mother’s impatient glance, grandmother, had come to the United States in the long had found the little square and exclaimed over it, and train of refugees from Hitler, her mother had urged the her mother, snatching it away from her, had muttered, grown Hester to visit her, and she had refused, know- ‘If that isn’t Dutchy!’ But she had looked at it long and ing her own childishness but feeling the resentment ruefully before she had pushed it back into a corner. rise in her as if she were six, saying, ‘I won’t go. She Hester had added the picture to the legend of her wouldn’t let you have your doll’. Her mother had mother’s childhood built up from the bitter little smiled at her sadly and had shrugged her shoulders anecdotes that her mother had let drop casually over resignedly. ‘You wouldn’t say that if you could see her. the years. She’s an old woman. She has no teeth.’ Looking at her She saw the small Hedwig, as clearly as if it had mother, Hester had wondered what her feelings were been herself, haunting the stiff rooms of the house in after forty years, but her mother, private as always in the townlet of Oberelsbach, motherless since birth her emotions, had given no sign. and almost immediately stepmothered by a woman There had been no sign for Hester – never an open who had been unloving, if not unkind, and had soon demonstration of love or an appeal – until the tele- borne the stern, Haustyrann father a son. The small phone call of a few months before, when she had heard figure she saw had no connection with the all-powerful her mother say quietly, over the distance, ‘I think figure of her mother but, rather, seemed akin to the you’d better come’, and she had turned away from the legion of lonely children who were a constant motif phone saying bitterly, almost in awe, ‘If she asks me in the literature that had been her own drug – the to come, she must be dying!’ Sara Crewes and Little Dorrits, all those children who Turning the key over in her hand, Hester looked inhabited the familiar terror-struck dark that crouched back at the composite figure of her mother – that far- under the lash of the adult. She saw Hedwig receiving off figure of the legendary child, the nearer object of from her dead mother’s mother – the Grandmother her own dependence, love, and hate – looked at it Rosenberg, warm and loving but, alas, too far away to from behind the safe, dry wall of her own ‘American’ be of help – the beautiful, satin-incrusted bisque doll, education. We are told, she thought, that people who and she saw the bad stepmother taking it away from do not experience love in their earliest years cannot Hedwig and putting it in the drawing room, because open up; they cannot give it to others; but by the time ‘it is too beautiful for a child to play with’. She saw all we have learned this from books or dredged it out of this as if it had happened to her and she had never reminiscence, they have long since left upon us their forgotten. chill, irremediable stain.

232 233 hortense calisher the middle drawer

If Hester searched in her memory for moments of time. Meanwhile, her father’s uncritical affection, of animal maternal warmth, like those she self- his open caresses, had been steadiness under her feet consciously gave her own child (as if her own after the shifting waters of her mother’s personality, childhood prodded her from behind), she thought but he had been away from home on business for always of the blue-shot twilight of one New York long periods, and when at home he, too, was increas- evening, the winter she was eight, when she and her ingly a target for her mother’s deep-burning rage mother were returning from a shopping expedition, against life. Adored member of a large family that was gay and united in the shared guilt of being late for almost tribal in its affections and unity, he could not supper. In her mind, now, their arrested figures stood cope with this smouldering force and never tried to like two silhouettes caught in the spotlight of time. understand it, but the shield of his adulthood gave They had paused under the brightly agitated bulbs him a protection that Hester did not have. He stood of a movie-theatre marquee, behind them the broad, on equal ground. rose-red sign of a Happiness candy store. Her mother, Hester’s parents had met at Saratoga, at the races. suddenly leaning down to her, had encircled her with So dissimilar were their backgrounds that it was her arm and nuzzled her, saying almost anxiously, improbable that they would ever have met elsewhere ‘We do have fun together, don’t we?’ Hester had stared than in the somewhat easy social flux of a spa, back stolidly, almost suspiciously, into the looming, although their brownstone homes in New York were pleading eyes, but she had rested against the encircling not many blocks apart, his in the gentility of upper arm, and warmth had trickled through her as from Madison Avenue, hers in the solid, Germanic comfort a closed wound reopening. of Yorkville. By this time, Hedwig had been in America After this, her mother’s part in the years that ten years. followed seemed blurred with the recriminations All Hester knew of her mother’s coming to America from which Hester had retreated ever farther, always was that she had arrived when she was sixteen. Now seeking the remote corners of the household – the that she knew how old her mother had been at death, sofa-fortressed alcoves, the store closet, the servants’ knew the birth date so zealously guarded during bathroom – always bearing her amulet, a book. It a lifetime of evasion and so quickly exposed by the seemed to her now, wincing, that the barrier of her noncommittal nakedness of funeral routine, she mother’s dissatisfaction with her had risen imper- realised that her mother must have arrived in 1900. ceptibly, like a coral cliff built inexorably from the She had come to the home of an aunt, a sister of her slow accretion of carelessly ejaculated criticisms own dead mother. What family drama had preceded that had grown into solid being in the heavy fullness her coming, whose decision it had been, Hester did

234 235 hortense calisher the middle drawer not know. Her mother’s one reply to a direct question work on the ruffles. I remember Tante’s maid came in had been a shrugging ‘There was nothing for me there’. from the back yard quite angry and refused to hang Hester had a vivid picture of her mother’s arrival them on the line any more. She said the other maids, and first years in New York, although this was drawn from the houses around, teased her for belonging to a from only two clues. Her great-aunt, remarking once family who would wear things like that.’ on Hester’s looks in the dispassionate way of near Until Hester was in her teens, her mother had relations, had nodded over Hester’s head to her always employed young German or Czech girls fresh mother. ‘She is dark, like the father, no? Not like you from ‘the other side’ – Teenies and Josies of long were.’ And Hester, with a naïve glance of surprise at her braided hair, broad cotton ankles and queer, blunt mother’s sedate pompadour, had eagerly interposed, shoes, who had clacked deferentially to her mother in ‘What was she like, Tante?’ German and had gone off to marry their waiter’s and ‘Ach, when she came off the boat, war sie hübsch!’ baker’s apprentices at just about the time they learned Tante had said, lapsing into German with unusual to wear silk stockings and ‘just as soon as you’ve taught warmth, ‘Such a colour! Pink and cream!’ them how to serve a dinner’, returning regularly to ‘Yes, a real Bavarian Mädchen’, said her mother show off their square, acrid babies. ‘Greenhorns!’ her with a trace of contempt. ‘Too pink for the fashion mother had always called them, a veil of something here. I guess they thought it wasn’t real.’ indefinable about her lips. But in the middle drawer Another time, her mother had said, in one of there was a long rope of blond hair, sacrificed, like the her rare bursts of anecdote, ‘When I came, I brought handkerchiefs, but not wholly discarded. enough linen and underclothing to supply two brides. There was no passport in the drawer. Perhaps it At the convent school where I was sent, the nuns had been destroyed during the years of the first World didn’t teach you much besides embroidery, so I had War, when her mother, long since a citizen by virtue plenty to bring, plenty. They were nice, though. Good, of her marriage, had felt the contemporary pressure simple women. Kind. I remember I brought four dozen to excise everything Teutonic. ‘If that nosy Mrs. Cahn handkerchiefs, beautiful heavy linen that you don’t asks you when I came over, just say I came over get in America. But they were large, bigger than the as a child’, she had said to Hester. And how easy it size of a man’s handkerchief over here, and the first had been to nettle her by pretending that one could time I unfolded one, everybody laughed, so I threw discern a trace of accent in her speech! Once, when them away.’ She had sighed, perhaps for the linen. the family had teased her by affecting to hear an echo ‘And underdrawers! Long red flannel, and I had spent of ‘puplic’ in her pronunciation of ‘public’, Hester had months embroidering them with yards of white eyelet come upon her, hours after, standing before a mirror,

236 237 hortense calisher the middle drawer colour and nose high, watching herself say, over and Her mother had faltered before her. ‘Do you want over again, ‘Public! Public!’ to be a dreamer all your life?’ she had muttered. Was it this, thought Hester, her straining toward Hester had been unable to think of anything to perfection, that made her so intolerant of me, almost say for a moment. Then she had stuttered, ‘All you as if she were castigating in her child the imperfections think of in life is money!’, and had made her grand that were her own? ‘Big feet, big hands, like mine’, exit. But huddling miserably in her room afterward her mother had grumbled. ‘Why? Why? When every she had known even then that it was not as simple as woman in your father’s family wears size one! But their that, that her mother, too, was whipped and driven nice, large ears – you must have those!’ And dressing by some ungovernable dream she could not express, Hester for Sunday school she would withdraw a few which had left her, like the book, torn in two. feet to look at the finished product, saying slowly, with Was it this, perhaps, that had sent her across an dreamy cruelty, ‘I don’t know why I let you wear those ocean, that had impelled her to perfect her dress and white gloves. They make your hands look clumsy, just manner, and to reject the humdrum suitors of her like a policeman’s’. aunt’s circle for a Virginia bachelor twenty-two years It was over books that the rift between Hester and older than herself? Had she, perhaps, married him her mother had become complete. To her mother, not only for his money and his seasoned male marrying into a family whose bookish traditions charm but also for his standards and traditions, against she had never ceased trying to undermine with the which her railings had been a confession of envy sneer of the practical, it was as if the stigmata of that and defeat? tradition, appearing upon the girl, had forever made So Hester and her mother had continued to pit them alien to one another. their implacable difference against each other in a ‘Your eyes don’t look like a girl’s, they look like struggle that was complicated out of all reason by their an old woman’s! Reading! Forever reading!’ she had undeniable likeness – each pursuing in her own orbit stormed, chasing Hester from room to room, flushing the warmth that had been denied. Gauche and surly her out of doors, and on one remote, terrible afternoon, as Hester was in her mother’s presence, away from it whipping the book out of Hester’s hand, she had leaned she had striven successfully for the very falsities of over her, glaring, and had torn the book in two. standard that she despised in her mother, and it was Hester shivered now, remembering the cold sense her misery that she was forever impelled to earn her of triumph that had welled up in her as she had faced mother’s approval at the expense of her own. Always, her mother, rejoicing in the enormity of what her she knew now, there had been the lurking, buried mother had done. wish that someday she would find the final barb, the

238 239 hortense calisher the middle drawer homing shaft, that would maim her mother once and ‘Oh’, said Hester, carefully smoothing down a wrinkle for all, as she felt herself to have been maimed. on the bedspread, ‘It’s very wise to have that done’. A few months before, the barb had been placed in Suddenly, her mother had put out her hand in a her hand. In answer to the telephone call, she had come gesture almost of appeal. Half in a whisper, she asked, to visit the family a short time after her mother’s sudden ‘Would you like to see it? No one has seen it since operation for cancer of the breast. She had found her I left the hospital’. father and brother in an anguish of helplessness, fear, ‘Yes’, Hester said, keeping her tone cool, even, and male distaste at the thought of the illness, and her full only of polite interest. ‘I’d like very much to see mother a prima donna of fortitude, moving unbowed it.’ Frozen there on the bed, she had reverted to toward the unspoken idea of her death but with the childhood in reality, remembering, as if they had all signs on her face of a pitiful tension that went beyond been crammed into one slot in time, the thousands of the disease. She had taken to using separate utensils incidents when she had been the one to stand before and to sleeping alone, although the medical opinion her mother, vulnerable and bare, helplessly awaiting that cancer was not transferable by contact was well the cruel exactitude of her displeasure. ‘I know how known to her. It was clear that she was suffering from a she feels as if I were standing there myself’, thought horror of what had been done to her and from a fear of Hester. ‘How well she taught me to know!’ the revulsion of others. It was clear to Hester, also, that Slowly her mother undid her housegown and bared her father and brother had such a revulsion and had her breast. She stood there for a long moment, on her not been wholly successful in concealing it. face the looming, pleading look of twenty years before, One night she and her mother had been together the look it had once shown under the theatre marquee. in her mother’s bedroom. Hester, in a shabby house- Hester half rose from the bed. There was a hurt in gown, stretched out on the bed luxuriously, thinking her own breast that she did not recognise. She spoke of how there was always a certain equivocal case, a with difficulty. letting down of pretense, an illusory return to the ‘Why … it’s a beautiful job, Mother’, she said, irresponsibility of childhood, in the house of one’s distilling the carefully natural tone of her voice. ‘Neat birth. Her mother, back turned, had been standing as can be. I had no idea … I thought it would be unnecessarily long at the bureau, fumbling with the ugly.’ With a step toward her mother, she looked, as articles upon it. She turned slowly. if casually, at the dreadful neatness of the cicatrix, at ‘They’ve been giving me X-ray twice a week’, she the twisted, foreshortened tendon of the upper arm. said, not looking at Hester, ‘to stop any involvement ‘I can’t raise my arm yet’, whispered her mother. of the glands.’ ‘They had to cut deep … Your father won’t look at it.’

240 241 hortense calisher the middle drawer

In an eternity of slowness, Hester stretched out it off and reburied it, but when they came again in the her hand. Trembling, she touched a tentative finger morning, the hand had grown again. So, too, thought to her mother’s chest, where the breast had been. Hester, even though I might learn – have learned in Then, with rising sureness, with infinite delicacy, she some ways – to escape my mother’s hand, all my life drew her fingertips along the length of scar in a light, I will have to push it down; all my life my mother’s hand affirmative caress, and they stood eye to eye for an will grow again out of the unquiet grave of the past. immeasurable second, on equal ground at last. It was her own life that was in the middle drawer. In the cold, darkening room, Hester unclenched She was the person she was not only because of her herself from remembrance. She was always vulnerable, mother but because, fifty-eight years before, in the Hester thought. As we all are. What she bequeathed me little town of Oberelsbach, another woman, whose unwittingly, ironically, was fortitude – the fortitude of qualities she would never know, had died too soon. those who have had to live under the blow. But pity – Death, she thought, absolves equally the bungler, the that I found for myself. evildoer, the unloving, and the unloved – but never She knew now that the tangents of her mother the living. In the end, the cicatrix that she had, in the and herself would never have fully met, even if her smallest of ways, helped her mother to bear had eaten mother had lived. Holding her mother’s hand through its way in and killed. The living carry, she thought, the long night as she retreated over the border line perhaps not one tangible wound but the burden of the of narcosis and coma into death, she had felt the innumerable small cicatrices imposed on us by our giddy sense of conquering, the heady euphoria of beginnings; we carry them with us always, and from being still alive, which comes to the watcher in the these, from this agony, we are not absolved. night. Nevertheless, she had known with sureness, She turned the key and opened the drawer. even then, that she would go on all her life trying to ‘show’ her mother, in an unsatisfied effort to earn her approval – and unconditional love. As a child, she had slapped at her mother once in a frenzy of rebellion, and her mother, in reproof, had told her the tale of the peasant girl who had struck her mother and had later fallen ill and died and been buried in the village cemetery. When the mourners came to tend the mound, they found that the corpse’s offending hand had grown out of the grave. They cut

242 243 Three hundred bookmarks have been distributed at random in this print run of Vestoj. If you’re lucky enough to get a golden ticket, this is what you should know: This bookmark is hand embroidered with cotton thread on silk. It is designed by Jackie Villevoye of Jupe by Jackie and crafted by master embroiderers in the Indian province of Uttar Pradesh. The embroiderers are all men, and their craft passes from one generation to the next, and has done so for centuries. When a young boy decides to become a master embroiderer, he knows that it will take him almost fifteen years to become a professional. Like a soccer player or ballet dancer, his childhood is devoted to learning his intricate craft. He stays indoors to prevent his skin from hardening as every nerve ending in his fingertips has to remain sharp to guide the needle as he works. At the age of forty the detailed work of the craftsman finally degrades his eyesight to the degree where he will have to abandon his work and retire. The career of the master is over. Each bookmark has taken one master embroiderer thirteen hours to complete.

Vestoj On Slowness 245 Slow Time is God’s Time (pp.41–47) Betwixt and Between (pp.49–55) NOTES By Dr Donald B. Kraybill By Nathalie Khan

1 I am grateful for the kindness of Judy Stavisky 1 H Schweizer, On Waiting, Routledge, London, for granting permission to use her observations 2008, p.2 of Amish dress and for the editorial assistance 2 A Rocamora, ‘New Fashion Times: Fashion Refashioning Time (pp.13–19) B Cohn, ‘Cloth, Clothes, and Nationalism: of Cynthia Nolt and Digital Media’, in S Black (ed.), The By Dr Michelle Bastian India in the Nineteenth Century’, in A Weiner 2 Author interview with Ohio Amish man, Handbook of Fashion Studies, Bloomsbury, and J Schneider (eds), Cloth in Human October 10, 2012 London, 2013, pp.61–77 1 e.g. H Clark, ‘SLOW + FASHION – an Experience, Smithsonian Institution Press, 3 For details on Amish history and an overview 3 P Virilio, ‘The Overexposed City’, in Lost Oxymoron – or a Promise for the Future …?’, Washington D.C., 1989; R Jain, Khadi: The of Amish communities in North America, see Dimension, MIT Press, New York, 2012 Fashion Theory, Vol. 12, Issue 4, 2008, p.428 Fabric of Freedom, Amr Vastra Kosh Trust, D B Kraybill, K M Johnson-Weiner, and S M 4 H Bergson, Creative Evolution, Dover 2 K Fletcher, ‘Slow Fashion: An Invitation for New Delhi, 2002; M Naik and N Chaturvedi, Nolt, The Amish, Johns Hopkins University Publications, Mineola, NY, 1998 [1st ed.1911], Systems Change’, Fashion Practice, Vol. 2, Khadi: A Historical Journey, Shubhi Press, Baltimore, 2013 pp.9–10 Issue 2, 2010, p.263 Publications, Gurgaon, 2007; R Ramagundam, 4 S Scott, Why Do They Dress That Way?, Good 5 V Turner, ‘Humility and Hierarchy: The 3 Ibid., p.262 Gandhi’s Khadi: A History of Contention and Books, Intercourse, PA, 1986, pp.122–123 Liminality of Status Elevation and Reversal’, 4 To find out more visit www.sustainingtime.org Conciliation, Orient Longman, New Delhi, 5 For an introduction to Amish spirituality and in The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti- 5 K Fletcher and P Goggin, ‘The Dominant 2008; E Tarlo, Clothing Matters: Dress and beliefs, consult D B Kraybill, S M Nolt, and D L Structure, Aldine Transaction, New York, Stances on Ecodesign: A Critique’, Design Identity in India, University of Chicago Press, Weaver-Zercher, The Amish Way, Jossey-Bass, 1997 [1st ed.1969], pp.166–194 Issues, Vol. 17, No. 3, 2001, p.20. See also Chicago, 1996; L Trivedi, Clothing Gandhi’s San Francisco, 2010 6 C Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology, K Fletcher, ‘Durability, Fashion, Sustainability: Nation: Homespun and Modern India, 6 I Timothy 2:9–10; I Peter 3:3–4 Basic Books, London, 1974 The Processes and Practices of Use’, Fashion Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 2007 7 I Corinthians 11:2–16 7 V Turner, ‘Rites of Passage’, in The Forest of Practice, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 2012, pp.221–238 2 C A Bayly, ‘The Origins of Swadeshi (Home 8 1001 Questions and Answers on the Symbols, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 6 K Fletcher, ‘Durability, Fashion, Sustainability: Industry): Cloth and Indian Society, Christian Life, Pathway Publishers, Aylmer, 1967, pp.96–102 The Processes and Practices of Use’, Fashion 1700–1930’, in A Appadurai (ed.), The Social Ontario, 1992, pp.129–137 8 C Dior, Dior by Dior, Penguin, London, 1957, Practice, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 2012, p.222 Life of Things, Cambridge University Press, 9 R Sennett, ‘Foreword’, in G Lipovetsky, p.106 7 S Sharma, In the Meantime: Temporality and Cambridge, 1986, p.285. Also see B Cohn, The Empire of Fashion: Dressing Modern 9 R Sutton, D Vigneswaran and H Wels, ‘Waiting Cultural Politics, Duke University Press, ‘Cloth, Clothes, and Nationalism: India in Democracy, Princeton University Press, in Liminal Space: Migrants’ Queuing for Home Durham and London, 2014, pp.108–135 the Nineteenth Century’, in A Weiner and Princeton, 1994, pp.viii–x Affairs in South Africa’, Anthropology Southern 8 Ibid., p.150 J Schneider (eds), Cloth in Human Experience, 10 I am indebted to Judy Stavisky’s unpublished Africa, Vol. 34, No. 1 and 2, 2011, pp.32–34 Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington research notes, July 2014, and Louise Stoltzfus’s 10 J Tomlinson, The Culture of Speed: The D.C., 1989 unpublished ‘Treatise on Lancaster Amish Coming of Immediacy, Sage, London, 2007 Spinning for Freedom (pp.29–39) 3 To find out more about Gandhi’s views on Dress Practices’, July 2000, for many of these 11 R Sutton, D Vigneswaran and H Wels, ‘Waiting By Dr Susan S. Bean khadi, see M K Gandhi, An Autobiography: observations. For a lengthy discussion of dress, in Liminal Space: Migrants’ Queuing for Home The Story of My Experiments with Truth, consult D B Kraybill, K M Johnson-Weiner, Affairs in South Africa’, Anthropology Southern 1 For recent insights into the historical Beacon Press, Boston, 1957; M K Gandhi, and S M Nolt, The Amish, Johns Hopkins Africa, Vol. 34, No. 1 and 2, 2011, pp.32–34 development and impacts of khadi, see Indian Home Rule, Ganesh and Co., Madras, University Press, Baltimore, 2013, pp.125–130 12 C Horyn, ‘A Designer Gives Lessons on C A Bayly, ‘The Origins of Swadeshi 1922 [1st ed.1908]; M K Gandhi, The Ideology 11 Judy Stavisky interview with Pennsylvania What’s Sexy’, The New York Times, (Home Industry): Cloth and Indian Society, of the Charkha: A Collection of Gandhiji’s Amish woman, July 24, 2014 September 12th 2007 1700–1930’, in A Appadurai (ed.), The Social Speeches and Writings about Khadi, ed. S 12 Judy Stavisky interview with Pennsylvania 13 S Menkes, ‘Mark Jacobs Disappoints with A Life of Things, Cambridge University Press, Jaju, All India Spinners Association, Sevagram, Amish woman, July 23, 2014 Freak Show’, The New York Times, September Cambridge, 1986; S S Bean, ‘Spinning 1951; E Erikson, Gandhi’s Truth, W.W. Norton, 13 1001 Questions and Answers on the Christian 12th 2007 Independence’, in M Meister (ed.), Making New York, 1969 Life, Pathway Publishers, Aylmer, Ontario, 14 R Felder, ‘The Social Catwalk’, The Financial Things in South Asia: The Role of Artist and 4 For an analysis of the visual culture of 1992, p.131 Times, February 10th 2012 Craftsman (Proceedings of the South Asia spinning in relation to Gandhi’s khadi, see 14 See, for example, B Schwartz, The Paradox 15 K Moxey, Visual Time: The Image in History, Seminar, vol. 4), University of Pennsylvania, R M Brown, ‘Spinning without Touching the of Choice: Why More is Less, HarperCollins, Duke University Press, Durham and London, Philadelphia, 1988; S S Bean, ‘Gandhi and Wheel: Anti-Colonialism, Indian Nationalism New York, 2004 2013 Khadi: The Fabric of Indian Nationalism’, in and the Deployment of Symbol’, Comparative 16 R Schechner, ‘There’s Lots of Time in Godot’, A Weiner and J Schneider (eds), Cloth in Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle Modern Drama, Vol. 9, No. 3, University of Human Experience, Smithsonian Institution East, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2009, pp.230–245 Toronto Press, 1966, pp.268–276 Press, Washington D.C., 1989; S S Bean, 5 M K Gandhi, The Ideology of the Charkha: 17 Ibid., p.270 ‘Freedom Homespun’, in Asian Art and A Collection of Gandhiji’s Speeches and Culture, Vol. 9, No. 2, 1996, pp.53–67; R M Writings about Khadi, ed. S Jaju, All India Brown, Gandhi’s Spinning Wheel and the Spinners Association, Sevagram, 1951, p.99 Making of India, Routledge, New York, 2010;

247 Notes Notes

Dwelling Time (pp.59–65) The Dignity of 17 M Morris, ‘Weaving and Textile Crafts’, in By Karinna Nobbs Beauty and Fitness (pp.73–79) Handicrafts and Reconstruction: Notes by By Karlijn Slegers Members of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition 1 R Oldenburg, The Great Good Place: Cafés, Society, J Hogg for the Arts and Crafts Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, 1 T Carlyle, ‘Signs of the Times’, 1829, in G B Exhibition Society, London, 1919, p.42 and Other Hangouts in the Heart of a Tennyson (ed.), A Carlyle Reader, Cambridge Community, Paragon House, New York, 1989 University Press, Cambridge, 1984, p.34 2 C Mikunda, Brand Lands, Hot Spots & Cool 2 R P Blakesley, The Arts and Crafts Movement, Fashion Freeze Frame (pp.117–121) Spaces, Kogan Page, London, 2004, p.11 Phaidon Press, London and New York, 2006; By Nilgin Yusuf 3 A G Parsons, ‘Atmosphere in Fashion Stores: A Callen, Angel in the Studio: Women in the Do You Need to Change?’, Journal of Fashion Arts and Crafts Movement 1870–1914, 1 A Bennett and P Hodkinson (eds), Ageing & Marketing and Management, Vol. 15, Issue 4, Astragal Books, London, 1979; P Stansky, Youth Cultures: Music, Style and Identity, 2011, pp.428–445 Redesigning the World: William Morris, the Bloomsbury, London, 2012 4 D Lewis, and D Bridger, The Soul of the New 1880s, and the Arts and Crafts, Princeton 2 J Laver, Taste and Fashion: From the French Consumer, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, University Press, Princeton, 1985 Revolution to the Present Day, G.G. Harrap Boston, 2001 3 J Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, Smith, Limited, London, 1945 5 B J Pine and J Gilmore, The Experience Elder and Co, London, 1851–53 3 Interview with the author, 2009 Economy, Harvard Business School, Boston, 4 C Fiell and P Fiell, William Morris, Taschen, 2011 Cologne, 1999 5 R P Blakesley, The Arts and Crafts Movement, Slow and Steady Wins the Race (pp.179–183) Phaidon Press, London and New York, 2006; By Professor Frances Corner A Time for Dressing (pp.67–71) A Callen, Angel in the Studio: Women in By Professor Barbara Vinken the Arts and Crafts Movement 1870–1914, 1 See S Zižek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, Astragal Books, London, 1979 RSA Lecture, 2010: http://www.thersa.org/ 1 See C Thomas, La reine scélérate: Marie 6 H Startup, ‘Women Architectural Patrons and events/video/archive/slavoj-zizek-first-as- Antoinette dans les pamphlets, Seuil, Paris, the Shaping of an Arts and Crafts Culture, tragedy,-then-as-farce 1989; L Hunt (ed.), Eroticism and the Body 1870–1914’, in N Harris Bluestone (ed.), 2 S Critchley, The Book of Dead Philosophers, Politic, Johns Hopkins University Press, Double Vision: Perspectives on Gender and Granta Books, London, 2008 Baltimore and London, 1991; A Fraser, Marie the Visual Arts, Associated University Press, 3. C P Snow, The Two Cultures, Cambridge Antoinette: The Journey, Doubleday, New London, 1995 University Press, London, 1959 York, 2001; B Vinken, ‘Marie Antoinette oder 7 P A Cunningham, Reforming Women’s Fashion Das Ende der Zwei-Körper-Lehre’, in U 1850–1920: Politics, Health and Art, Kent Hebekus, E Matala de Mazza and A Koschorke State University Press, Kent, OH, 2003, p.124 (eds), Das Politische: Figurenlehren des 8 S M Newton, Health, Art and Reason: Dress sozialen Körpers nach der Romantik, Fink, Reformers of the 19th Century, John Murray, Munich, 2003, pp.86–105; C Weber, Queen London, 1974, p.155 of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to 9 B J Morris, Victorian Embroidery: An the Revolution, Henry Holt, New York, 2006; Authoritative Guide, Thomas Nelson, P Saint-Amand, ‘Terrorizing Marie-Antoinette’, New York, 1962 in D Goodman (ed.), Marie-Antoinette: 10 S F A Caulfeild and B C Saward, Dictionary Writings on the Body of a Queen, Routledge, of Needlework, AW Cowan, London, New York and London, 2003, pp.253–272 1882, Reprinted from the 2nd edition as 2 J de la Bruyère, Sittengemälde: Für die Encyclopedia of Victorian Needlework, Deutschen, Weygand, Leipzig, 1790, p.208, Dover, New York, 1972, p.28 author’s translation 11 Ibid., pp.15–16 3 E de Goncourt and J de Goncourt, Histoire 12 M Morris, Decorative Needlework, Joseph de Marie-Antoinette, Charpentier et Hughes & Co, London, 1893, dedicatory note Fasquelle, Paris, 1893, p.106, author’s 13 Ibid. translation 14 W Morris, ‘The Lesser Arts of Life’, in Lectures on Art Delivered in Support for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, Macmillan and Co, London, 1882, pp.174–232 15 Ibid. 16 Ibid, p.222; M Morris, Decorative Needlework, Joseph Hughes & Co, London, 1893, p.3

Vestoj On Slowness 249 Philippe Boudin knock-offs. The copied and degraded contributors Philippe deals in Japanese art from pages from the company’s very last a gallery on the Parisian Left Bank. catalogue show the trajectory of Walk down his steps into a series modern capitalism – from crafts­ of sixteenth century caves, and take manship to mass-production. Agoera Susan S. Bean your time to enjoy the objects on When Agoera starts a new painting, the Susan is a very elegant scholar whose display: tea ceremony paraphernalia, Maria Fusco first thing he does is select a sad colour. photograph has been featured in Vogue bamboo baskets, lacquered objects, Maria looks at fiction as a critical Then he gets to work. Sitting at home India. She writes, curates and consults boro textiles and wabi-sabi ceramics. practice – she, in her own words, in Kanagawa, Japan, he picks up his on the visual arts and culture of Together with his wife Maiko, Philippe writes through the art object. favourite melancholy colours (dark modern South Asia, and chairs the specialises in the Mingei period Whether she’s defined as an artist, blues and reds mostly) and with bold Art & Archaeology Centre of the – Japanese folk art from the late writer, editor or critic, her work brushstrokes turns plywood boards American Institute of Indian Studies. 1920s and 30s, once handmade by always explores the role of writing in into poignant scenes of loss and woe. She once taught anthropology at Yale, unknown craftsmen for the masses. the contemporary art arena, i.e. what and is today an Associate of the writing in this context ‘might be’. John Barker Peabody Museum at Harvard. Frances Corner Today she has a role as Chancellor’s John is a socio-cultural anthropologist Frances is the fairy godmother of this Fellow – Reader in the School of Art at the University of British Columbia Mark Borthwick journal. Through steadfast support at Edinburgh College of Art, while whose research revolves around the When Mark writes emails they read and encouragement, she has ensured keeping her journal The Happy religious change among Indigenous like poetry, and sometimes it takes that we’re given the backing we need Hypocrite on hiatus. people in colonial and post-colonial a little while to decipher them. But to grow at our own pace, and for that Oceania and British Columbia. With that’s okay, because with Mark you we take our hats off to her. Apart from Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada his wife, the psychologist Anne Marie take time. His photographs have championing Vestoj, Frances is the Yoshiko is a California based textile Tietjen, he has travelled extensively the same evocative and somewhat Head of College at London College artist, author, teacher, curator and in Papua New Guinea since the 1980s, numinous quality as his words: of Fashion, a post she’s using to turn researcher and a champion of tradi­ doing fieldwork with the Maisin people: a reflection of his world, which is the university into a bellwether for tional and sustainable practices in ever inquisitive about the interface as full of the everyday as it is of the fashion education, research and fashion and textile production. She between local and global religion, John sacred. Mark loves feathers, bones, consultancy and a pioneer for is the founder of Slow Fiber Studios was one of the first to study the adoption ribbons and musical instruments, and sustainable and ethical practice and the president of the World of Christianity amongst Melanesians. the lucky will get to hear him sing. in the curriculum. Shibori Network, and has been awfully influential in the art-to- Michelle Bastian Polly Brown Jacob Dahl Jürgensen wear movement and in introducing Michelle is a Chancellor’s Fellow at Polly obsesses about airports, plants, The story behind Jacob’s watch series Japanese shibori to America. Edinburgh University, researching the feet and ear lobes. Lately, it’s been is this: the Jules Jürgensen company inter-connection between time and mostly plants. Recently she published was founded by an ancestor of Jacob’s Nathalie Khan community. Drawing on anthropology, her first book Plants which took her in Copenhagen in the 1770s. Sold Nathalie is an Associate Lecturer in sociology and philosophy, she explores from office to office at some of the in the early nineteenth century and Fashion History and Cultural Studies how concepts of time are used in social world’s most recognisable brands, and then traded several times before finally at Central Saint Martins and London methods of inclusion and exclusion, had her explain again and again to going bust in the aftermath of the College of Fashion. With a background while questioning the idea that linear bemused security guards just what she financial crisis of 2008, the company in fashion sales at Donna Karan, her conceptions of time denote a single was doing on her knees, photograph- went from producing high quality research interests now include icon­ reality or universal commensurability. ing that wilted plant in the corridor. watches to flogging cheap Rolex ography and celebrity culture, the

Vestoj On Slowness 251 Contributors Contributors social history of the fashion image, cat- ­ A counterbalance to the current brushes and water-based paint or became an effective way to combat walk shows and their narrative as well climate of fast fashion, Alice says needle and thread, the landscapes an otherwise slippery slope into days as psycho­analytic discourse in relation that she’s ‘not in a hurry to make that grow forth under Yin Yang’s filled with respectable lady activities to fashion. Oh, and fashion film! a lot of money’, preferring instead nimble hands are suggestive and like yoga and bridge. Today she over­ to have time to develop ideas, strangely stirring. sees the work of over one hundred Donald B. Kraybill remain independent and allow for artisans for her own line, while also Donald grew up milking cows on little accidents to take her work in Gordon Reece producing a collection in collabo- a Mennonite dairy farm in Lancaster new and unexpected directions. Gordon bought his first piece of boro ration with Comme des Garçons. County, and is today the world’s in 1995 at a flea market in Tokyo. foremost expert on the Old Order David Myron It was tucked casually under a stall, Barbara Vinken Amish. He is a Senior Fellow at the David is the Big Monkey. While not used as wrapping for one of the objects Barbara belongs to that rare breed: Young Center for Anabaptist and just generally monkeying around or on sale. He tells us that it took some the glamorous academic. Not just Pietist Studies at Elisabethtown playing strategic computer games, effort to convince the stallholder that alluring, but affable too, she is a College in Pennsylvania, and lectures he crafts objects out of wood, from he was sane and serious about buying Professor of French Literature at the widely on Anabaptist faiths. Growing the most delicate of rings to sculptures, the wrapper, not the object. That day University of Munich and has written up in the Mennonite church, the furniture and even houses. With a Gordon left the market with a happy extensively about fashion. Writing mores of the faith have stuck with background in the fine arts and a heart and what was to become the with much erudition, her observations him – Donald wears nothing super­ great knowledge of both fashion and first piece of an ongoing collection. on fashion are probing and thought- fluous, not even a wedding ring. As design, his artisanry has attracted the provoking and focus on the relation­ his parents once told him, rings are attention of all from gallery owners to Louise Riley ship between contemporary dress for bulls only. artists, designers and fashion editors. Louise says that the slowness of and its interface with the past. sewing allows her to think. A pattern Justine Kurland Karinna Nobbs emerges while she works: when laying Nilgin Yusuf Justine spends her summers travelling Without Karinna we would not be out the bolder areas she obsesses Nilgin established the MA in Fashion around America with her young son where we are today. With boundless about things that have bugged her, Media Production at London College Casper, photographing nomadic energy and plenty of drive, Karinna injustices small and large. She works of Fashion, intending it as the place subcultures – vagabonds, drifters, has made us (a little) less afraid of in ardour. In the next phase she to go for technology-embracing squatters and hitchhikers – often social media and a lot more forward consolidates, corrects and refines, communicators of the twenty-first portraying them in a pastoral thinking in terms of what the internet finding balance as she moves along century. Before that she wrote about or utopian style reminiscent can do for us. An expert in luxury the image. This is when she begins fashion for various illustrious UK of nineteenth century landscape brand management, integrated mark­ writing letters to loved ones in her broadsheets, but what she likes more painting. Excitable, impulsive and eting communication and fast fashion, head, often apologies or offers of than anything is thinking about the naturally restless, Justine’s work she is today a Senior Lecturer in forgiveness. The pattern repeats as clothes worn by criminal icons – seems a good approximation of Fashion Branding and Retail Strategy the image grows forth on the cloth. particularly the threads worn by the the artist herself. at London College of Fashion. Kray Twins back in the bad old days. Jackie Villevoye Alice Lemoine Yin Yang Quek Originally trained in law, Jackie Alice was once an architect but now Yin Yang tells us that she loves robins founded Jupe by Jackie in 2010 after she’s a fashion designer. She worked and sparrows as well as all types of buying a one-way ticket to India. with Rick Owens before starting creepy crawlies, and her fondness for With five children all grown up, her own line of hand knitted gar­ nature and its creatures is apparent sourcing yarn suppliers, textile ments, Le Moine Tricote, in 2011. also in her work. Whether she’s using factories and skilled embroiderers

Vestoj On Slowness 253 the vestoj manifesto

1 All articles must relate to sartorial issues. We are interested in people’s relationship to their clothes, and fashion’s relationship to identity.

2 We must bridge academia and industry. We will place academia and industry side by side, and give equal significance to both. We will place the academic in an industry context and vice versa in order to increase the understanding and collaboration between these two fields. We will work for the greater good of our discipline.

3 Fashion must always be taken seriously. We must never be afraid to have pretensions. We are as interested in the minutiae of clothing as we are in the grand themes of fashion. We will see the trivial in the substantial and the substantial in the trivial, and ensure that all is given equal importance.

4 The tone must be inviting. We must never be excluding in language or approach. We will use humour to draw readers in and themes that many can relate to.

5 Text and image shall be given equal importance. We must always integrate word and picture and guarantee that there is an ongoing dialogue between the two.

6 Everything shall be questioned – nothing is holy. We must challenge the status quo. We must always ask why.

7 We must always remain independent in thought and action. We must actively encourage critical thought and never be satisfied until we have examined every theme intrepidly. We will keenly promote criticism and draw attention to the paradoxes within the fashion world.

8 Advertising is forbidden.

9 The reader’s intellect must be as gratified as her aesthetic sense. We will encourage creativity as well as an intelligent discourse. We will take nothing for granted.

10 We will have an interdisciplinary approach. We will take care to examine each theme from various angles and make certain that we represent other lifestyles and ethos than our own. We will work from within the fashion world, but maintain an outsider’s perspective.